On October 13, Joe Biden finally got around to talking about the supply chain crisis that has been going on for some time.
Biden failed to address some of the real issues behind the disruption problem. But he claimed that the port of Los Angeles was going to begin operating 24/7 to help the supply chain bottleneck issues, which he called a “potential game-changer.”
As we said, it was unlikely that would be the ‘game changer’ he claimed, since there were more things involved than just having the ports open longer. But so far, it’s looking that he hasn’t really managed to do much of anything with the alleged ’24/7 edict’ as of yet. It had already been running since September 17 with the goal of eventually being 24/7. But it isn’t anywhere near that now.
According to the Washington Examiner, the Los Angeles ports were shut on Sunday, after having only a little bit of traffic on Saturday. Not exactly looking like “24/7” there, Joe and even more ships were backed up waiting to be unloaded than before.
The nationwide port schedule app Pier Trucker showed terminals that looked like ghost towns Sunday with barren traffic lanes as additional cargo ships continue to pile up along the coastlines of Los Angeles and Orange counties. On Friday, 88 ships were waiting to dock at either Long Beach or Los Angeles harbors — 10 additional ships from the last count on Oct. 13, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California. [….]
Last weekend, five of Los Angeles’ six terminals were open during the day on Saturday and none at night. In Long Beach , two terminals were open Saturday during the day, according to charts for the two ports. Next weekend appears to be a repeat of last weekend.
In addition to federal and state regulations, and obvious mismanagement problems, there’s also the fact that the shipping companies who run the terminals are foreign and don’t care about what Biden has to say, according to waterfront labor negotiator Jim Tessier. The companies also have long-term contracts which don’t involve opening on weekends because it more expensive to pay longshoremen then.
Port of Long Beach spokesman Lee Peterson said they are in contact with the terminal operators to try to address the issue.
But for now, Biden’s stated that it would be 24/7 and it isn’t even close to that. And even if it were, you still have to resolve the rest of the disruption issues otherwise it might be open but the products still wouldn’t be moving.
So once again, it’s a question of Biden saying something, but that being far from reality.