Railworks America

I had to post this as I can't believe it.

The Shipping Mystery
TRULY THE LAND OF FRUITS AND NUTS!

Left coast shipping explained by truckers.
from an article by Andrea Widberg

The conventional wisdom is that the virus is the reason
for stalled container ships off the California coast.


Problem # 1
California's new laws are not mentioned. Trucks with engines built
before 2011 are not allowed in the container off load area and drivers
must be 21 years of age now, no longer just 18.

To solve the truck problem, California mandated that older trucks be
replaced with electric trucks (which don't exist yet).

Half of the nation's truckers are now prohibited from picking up
containers in California. You don't hear about that of course.

In an effort to solve the problem, California compliant trucks have
been taking shipments to the state border, where the load is
transferred to non-compliant trucks. This has just built another
bottleneck.


Problem # 2
California's new law AB-5 killed the gig economy. Traditionally ports
are served by owner operators. AB-5 banned owner operators who are not
union. So, there just aren't nearly enough trucks to handle the job.
grandstanding about operating the ports 24/7 won't make a
difference.

You still won't get your
Christmas presents.
Does any of this surprise you ?

Where I'm at we consume a lot of raw metal that comes in by truck and lately our logistics team has basically been in a bidding war against other companies so we can get the material delivered to get product produced on time. I'm told by the older staff they've never seen anything this severe to the point where we sometimes may not hit timelines and delivery dates just because we can't find a truck.

I'm very concerned to see where things will be going in the next months, years to come.

Well, if the problem persists, I see shippers, union or otherwise, moving away from Cali ports to Gulf Coast and East Coast ports. Portland, Seattle and Vancouver can’t handle that additional load.

And I get people who scoff at me when I say we should produce more goods domestically...

Remember to be wary of what you read on the internet. Lots of fake news, lots of opinions disguised as fact, and lots of over-simplification.

Also we've managed so far to avoid sinking into political discussions. It's better IMHO to stay on that course.

Really?

Is that how RWA wants to look like these days? "Keep political comments out of it" as the official stance -- which I generally tend to agree with on places dedicated to a hobby such as this -- but it's okay to post stuff contrary to that rule just as long as it serves a specific political group.

Of course, what you do over there in America is your own business (though it tends to affect the rest of the world very much, too), but RWA is a train simming forum and not a town hall debate and I'm so out of here for good if this can't remain separate from the hobby and original purpose of this site.

/Rant over.

Cheers,
Michael

This is true. I’m an admin on a large discord server, and when things get political they get messy.

Probably best to stop while we’re at this stage lest it go further.