A steady flow of semis lead the way down a busy interstate highway in Tennessee. Heat waves rising ... [+] from the pavement give a nice shimmering e

Unclogging The Ports Will Not Fix The Supply Chain’s Even Bigger Trucking Crisis

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2021-10-19 16:00:10

A steady flow of semis lead the way down a busy interstate highway in Tennessee. Heat waves rising ... [+] from the pavement give a nice shimmering effect to vehicles and forest behind the lead trucks. Excellent reverse copy space across both top and bottom of image.

This week the Biden administration addressed the most visible sign of the nation’s supply chain crisis: opening the Los Angeles and Long Beach, CA ports to work around the clock to unload cargo ships.

Walmart WMT , Target TGT , FedE FDX x, UPS, Los Angeles and Long Beach Port Authority directors and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Teamster leaders are all on board with the 24/7 plan.

This may provide relief at the ports, but once the filled-to-capacity overseas containers reach land, there is another critical snag in the supply chain: a shortage of truckers and trucks to get those goods where they are needed. The current steps are a band-aid for the supply chain crisis, not a cure.

“Removing the bottleneck in one area – the ports – doesn’t create flow,” says Douglas Kent, the executive vice president of strategy and alliances at the Association for Supply Chain Management (ASCM). “It’s commendable that the government is stepping in and trying to assist with port congestion, but other modes of transport that follow from there – rail and trucking – are stressed to breaking too. What they may be hoping for won’t resolve the overarching crisis.”