Nathan Strang Profile picture
Oct 20, 2021 11 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Here is what I learned. Please keep in mind this is one team’s perspective. But perspective is important. I didn’t get into any “who is at fault” discussions, I just listened to them and what they had to say and what they were seeing. So here we go… 1/
1. Starting with the 24/7 gates. The terminal has not even discussed them with the crews. There is no plan in place to launch them.
2. For all of second shift they are seeing >50 trucks most nights. None are coming in after midnights. They have had nights with zero trucks... 2/
3. Despite that, appointments are “full.” They have so many no-shows they don’t know how to plan the yard.
4. No pulls mean a full yard. Between dwelling imports and empties, there is no room to place new containers in the yard... 3/
A ship they would normally work with 4-6 cranes they have 2 on. Those still do 30+ containers an hour per crane.
5. They are loading empties out. That isn’t a restriction. But with only 2 cranes they run out of time and have to cut the ship loose. ...4/
6. Rail has caught up. They have almost no rail containers left waiting to go out.
7. One spot they are truly short labor is on maintenance. Spare parts are in short supply. So even if they did ramp into full ops they would struggle with yard equipment. 5/
8. There are chassis. The problem though is as they issue them out, and they break, there is no way to fix them.
9. Those chassis are mostly for an on-wheels premium service but they can’t put the containers onto the chassis because they have nowhere to stage them. 6/
10. These teams don’t have any context and seem to not be keeping up on the “why” behind this. They just know that there are odd things happening like 2 ships on the same service and the ships they used to rush to unload are now worked as any other ship.. 7/
11. They are not intentionally slow working. COVID is not an issue. There is no intentional labor slowdown. They want more shifts. They are bored and want to work. 8/
12. Even if they went to 24/7 ops is would just look like more of the above. They don’t have enough skilled labor and management to work full out 24/7. How long would it take to get there? A year or more, easily. Less working, after all, means fewer training opportunities. 9/X
Again. This is one team, from one shift's perspective at one hard-working terminal. But we MUST go and listen to them and every other piece of this puzzle to really get an idea of where we must make improvements.
One more point! Important to note that they blame no one. Really, they don't. They find it all very interesting but at the end of the day they clock in, do their jobs, and go home to their families. They truly love the work and are proud of what they are doing.

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