Solutions to the West Coast Import Issues Include US Transportation Brokers

Since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been an unprecedented disruption in the global supply chain at almost every level. From a lack of freight containers in Asia, to the dramatic changes in the railway systems distributing goods to Americans, every step of the supply chain has been fundamentally affected. While we could probably write an entire course curriculum about how this situation has been unfolding over the past year and a half, the simple takeaway is this:

Efficient and proactive transportation brokers in the United States play a vital part in the efforts to re-stabilize the global supply chain throughout 2021 and 2022.

For a full year now, the ports on the West Coast have been absolute chaos. A central vein in the supply chain has been created between China and the West Coast of the United States – the primary supplier of global goods and the primary demander of global goods, respectively. The rapid spike in the United States’ demand for goods has caused a cascade of massive dominoes to fall throughout 2020, bringing us to our present situation where there is so much freight stranded at West Coast ports with an extremely limited ability to move it into the hands of consumers. 

While the railway system has gone to unprecedented lengths to adapt to the changing needs of distribution, it has still not been enough. BNSF CEO Katie Farmer wrote that “While we have increased our lift equipment and aggressively used available offsite lot capacity, our fluidity nevertheless relies in part upon the capacity and performance of our trucking and ocean carrier partners, as well as our beneficial cargo owners effectively managing their own pipelines and efficiently turning chassis pools,” (Trains.com)  

This statement sums up why transportation brokers have an immensely important role to play, one greater than we’ve thought in the past. When an import order is finally cleared, the necessary means of transportation MUST be there immediately. From securing a transloading warehouse to ensuring that the proper loading systems and trucks are there on time, every hour used effectively is one scoop of soil removed from the mountain that the United States is facing.

There is no one singular cause for this issue in the supply chain, and there is no one solution to re-stabilizing it. So until the COVID-19 virus is brought under control on a global level, it will take all of us working together and thinking beyond ourselves to solve these massive problems existing now and in the future.

If you’re looking for a fast, adaptable, and reliable partner in moving freight, please give our team a call. We’ll be happy to work with you or to provide an expert consultation. Contact Sparrow Logistics.