Lisa Baertlein and Nandita Bose

WASHINGTON (Reuters] – While President Joe Biden is attempting to alleviate supply shortages in order to tame rising price rises just in time for the holidays, experts indicated that it may take longer to clear U.S. supplies.

Biden brought together leaders from unions, ports and large business to tackle the U.S. supply chains’ shipping, labor and warehouse problems. On Wednesday, Biden also announced that Los Angeles will have new round-the-clock port operations.

His Republican opponents seize on Christmas shortages in order to link Biden’s economic policy to inflation and attempt to block a multitrillion dollar spending bill in Congress. The White House message Wednesday was that there is hope.

Biden (a Democrat) stated that this is an “overall commitment to going 24/7” Retailers like Amazon have made a commitment to open the port. Target He said that Walmart (NYSE) and (NYSE) are “important first steps” in moving more goods into the night. He said that now, “we need to have the rest of private sector chains step us.”

Although more collaboration among often rival, secrecy players in U.S. supply chains is a positive, it may only have a modest impact on the business, logistic experts, economists, and labor union leaders warned.

“What the President is doing won’t really hurt. Steven Ricchiuto from Mizuho Securities, U.S. chief economist, said that it does not solve the problem.

Americans are already the largest consumers in the world, and have been purchasing more imported goods during this pandemic. This is combined with national labor shortages, equipment shortages, and limited storage spaces.

The pandemic-driven surge of imports is causing havoc in ports and retail chains. They are working tirelessly to ensure holiday gift stock arrives on time and in ecommerce sites by November 26th, the kickoff for 2021.

The Port of Los Angeles is the No. 1 gateway for ocean trade with China. The Port of Los Angeles is the No. 1 port for sea trade with China, and they are currently up by 30% over last year.

There are 250,000 boxes of goods that have been left stacked on docks because of delayed pickups. This is due to a combination of chassis shortages and insufficient space in warehouses and rail yards. Numerous ships are now backing up in the port, causing them to anchor at an unsafe distance.

The analogy is the boa constrictors that ate mice. Joe Dunlap is global head for the supply-chain advisory team. CBRE Group (NYSE:), a commercial real estate services firm.

“YOU DON’T BUILD A CHURCH IN TIME OF CHRISTMAS”

Frank Ponce De Leon, International Longshore & Warehouse Union Coast Committeeman summarized the problem at U.S. ports, which the Commerce department estimates handle 76% of all trade, during comments last week.

He said, “You don’t build churches for Christmas or Easter. You build them for regular Sunday services.” With the incredible influx of cargo it is like Christmas or Easter at the docks, where more ships are coming in every day and the pews are full for months. There’s no place to stand or sit.

The longshore union stated that dockworkers are still available to work 24-hour shifts in order to clear port backlogs. However, this does not apply to the workers who ship or transport cargo from ports.

The shortage of truck drivers for port trucks is one of the biggest problems in logistics today. Jim Hoffa (Teamsters General President) said that they aren’t paid a living wages and was present at the meeting with Biden.

The shortage may also be worsened by inadequate backup. Port drivers do not get paid for waiting in line to take a container. This makes it less desirable.

However, it is not clear that experienced workers have been left behind – U.S. transport and warehousing employ more people than before the pandemic, according to data from Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Graphic: Transportation hiring is back to pre-pandemic levels , https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-ECONOMY/COVID-JOBS/xmpjokbmdvr/chart.png

WAREHOUSES EXPLORED, UNDERSTAFFED

Warehouses are like seaports in that they work well when products can be moved quickly and efficiently. Officials at ports claim they have too many employees and are struggling to hire and retain them.

U.S. firms are leasing unprecedented warehouse space to cope with the large amount of goods coming into e-commerce.

Los Angeles and Inland Empire are the markets serving Southern California ports. According to CBRE data, their second quarter vacancy rates were 1.2% and 1.4% respectively.

Dunlap stated, “Space is obviously tight.”

Steve DeHaan CEO, International Warehouse Logistics Association stated in a letter that not only are warehouses full, but also John Porcari port envoy to the White House Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force.

Different companies can own warehouses, and tenants or workforce employers may be involved. This makes it difficult to draw up new contracts for workers who work around the clock. DeHaan explained that “the warehouse cannot arbitrarily take this decision.” 

He said that moving a warehouse from 24-hour operations to a warehouse adds an additional layer of risk.

DeHaan explained that, for example, receiving at 6 a.m. a container scheduled for delivery at 3 a.m. disrupts operations for the whole day. “The aim of decreasing container congestion within the next 90 day is ambitious.”