Truck Power & Intermodal Congestion Continue in the USA

This week brought more announcements on cost increases in USA domestic trucking and intermodal movements. The congestion at USA ports and rail hubs continues to worsen, and carriers are announcing surcharges in the range of $350.00 under the auspices of “Emergency Intermodal Charge/EIC." Unfortunately, the costs continue to mount, and the number of additions to your freight bills add up. Keeping track of surcharges can be challenging as they range from equipment to fuel to congestion to intermodal, each with an acronym that may vary by carrier. 

We are also cognizant of the extreme difficulty in getting containers moved from ports and rail terminals prior to the last free day. Importers are running into significant demurrage bills, especially on reefer loads that get hit with the highest storage costs. The chaos in the industry is challenging for everyone, but the costs are primarily borne by the importers and exporters. Steamship lines are often advising that they cannot perform deliveries and throwing the responsibility back to the forwarder or shipper—often on the last free day. Truckers are cancelling pick ups due to lack of drivers or chassis, often on the day the pick up is scheduled. There is very little recourse as we all need every carrier and every trucker available.

There are lots of problems and very few solutions at this moment. We hear the complaints of the shipping community, and we communicate on a daily basis with our ocean carriers and truckers, working to find solutions and plan for contingencies for deliveries as much as possible.  

The question that is constantly asked is “when will this end?” 

Unfortunately, there is no short term solution and no definitive time frame as to normalization, or what a new normal may look like. As the ocean carriers continue to make incredible profits, we will keep pressure on them to invest in performance and honor commitments. The situation is global and any one incident—whether it be a holiday, a storm, or a COVID outbreak—will trickle down and affect the entire chain.  

We will continue to update the beverage alcohol shipping community on a weekly basis as to hot spots and problem areas, and please reach out to us with any questions.