The Global Transportation Crisis – How Can We Best Deal with It?

The Global Transportation Crisis – How Can We Best Deal with It?

If you want to get an idea of what a global commodity crisis looks like, you only need to fly a drone
over Los Angeles port, where you will observe something, you have never seen before. Over 100
cargo vessels were counted there at the end of October 2021, lying in place, polluting the sea and
the air, waiting for their turn to enter the port.
The Covid 19 has disrupted the effective mechanism of moving containers in the sea from one place
to another. Los Angeles is only one example of many of the huge traffic jams in the largest and most
important ports in the world. From East Asia to Europe, our goods transport chain is stuck. There are
goods, there are consumers who will buy them, but there is no one who will connect between the
two sides. So simple, and yet, so complicated.
Purposely to loosen the traffic jams and streamline the products, the giant companies have started
renting out vessels themselves while trying to use smaller ports. The consequences have shown that
this has not solved the problem. A shortage of critical professions such as truck drivers, warehouse
workers, loaders, and unloaders, made this situation even more complicated. The absence of a
workforce in the United States and Europe has gotten worse since the Covid 19 outbreak, as the
labor market has not yet recovered since then. The situation in Europe was so desperate that the
IKEA chain began to move its goods from Asia to the Continent via the mainland. To all COVID
troubles, neither global warming nor the weather helped, with some storms shutting down ports.
We all feel the implications of this crisis: vehicle manufacturing companies are not getting chips;
construction companies are not getting building materials; and hospitals are not getting essential
medicines. 

How can we cope with the crisis? What can we do to manage Covid’s after-effects on the global
transportation market?  
We suggest the best way to approach the circumstances is to think outside the box and optimize our
shipping management by following these steps:
Initially, we can use the LCL method and try to make better use of our container space. LCL means
that the consolidator is combining different shippers’ cargo into one container. Today, more and
more companies understand that if they want to streamline the logistical process and reduce their
costs, they need to use this method.
Additionally, we can optimize our business processes at specific destination by using technology and
digital platforms that enhance automation, transparency, and real-time communication between all
stakeholders of the process. Presently, the outdated process is followed without using the
appropriate technology and adequate knowledge sharing between the team members. The
stakeholders inform each other mostly by emails or exchanging files. The amount of information that
is not shared online is enormous and it is undoubtedly harmful to the whole process.
That is where ComTainer can help. The Smart Consolidation Platform we have developed
streamlines the entire LCL process. It provides forwarders and consolidators with the ability to share
real-time information with both their suppliers and customers while optimizing their container
space.

Using this system can save the consolidators unnecessary use of containers. It will help them
become more efficient and sell online to their customers, based on a reserved place in the container.
This efficient LCL process, in turn, will reduce logistics expenses. 
Environmentally, the system can streamline the logistics processes and lower the level of
environmental pollution as fewer containers will travel across our roads and oceans.
 
We anticipate the “Less than container Load” (LCL), together with technological tools, to be the
future of more efficient, green, and innovative logistics.  
Think outside the box – think COMTAINER.
Join us.