Just heard a news report that Felixstowe are reporting that the situation is back to normal now. I imagine that normal is a cluster ■■■■, but no doubt that news will disappoint certain sections of the media.
stu675:
SuperMultiBlue:
Fake news. Dropped an empty MSKU 40ft box today at Felixstowe.I hope you took a full one away with you?
Nope empty skel to gateway 
Empty containers are always going to be a problem, it costs more to ship an empty back to China or Taiwan than it does for them to build a new container, there are not enough exports to China.
Franglais:
Maersk are now diverting ships due to congestion at Felixstowe.
Some ships are off loading boxes elsewhere and sending them to other ports on smaller feeder ships.
bloomberg.com/news/articles … n-truckers
Some of it is allegedly driver shortage, but sending boxes to smaller ports won’t decrease the number of trucks needed will it? Just end up with same amount of boxes but further away from major railheads??
All means more cost and longer delivery times for UK industry it seems to me.
Seems like a hundred years since I turned boxes round at Felixstowe but I saw this on another forum today and wondered if it was true, and the criticism re clampers, justified.
I have to say I am pleased Felixstowe is being hammered - although actually other ports are affected across the globe.
Bidwells, who manage the site on behalf of Cambridge University who actually own the land, have employed the trucking world equivalent of cowboy clampers who hassle lorries with their “parking tickets” whilst queueing to load. As a result, many haulage companies avoid the port if they can (and given the other work available - they can). Now the boot is on the other foot and the consequences are clear!
Wheel Nut:
Empty containers are always going to be a problem, it costs more to ship an empty back to China or Taiwan than it does for them to build a new container, there are not enough exports to China.
That makes no sense!
What happens to the ship? do they keep building new ships in China and scrapping them in Europe/USA?
stu675:
Wheel Nut:
Empty containers are always going to be a problem, it costs more to ship an empty back to China or Taiwan than it does for them to build a new container, there are not enough exports to China.That makes no sense!
What happens to the ship? do they keep building new ships in China and scrapping them in Europe/USA?
It doesn’t have to make sense to us, only to the owners of the containers.
Back in the 80s, I knew a guy whose son worked as a driver in Canada. He got a job with an American haulier shipping containers full of the personal effects of US military from Alaska to Fort Bragg in N. Carolina. I have no idea why they didn’t use rail. He would fly to Anchorage, pick up a loaded truck and drive the 4.5 thousand miles, leave the truck there and fly home. The truck was sold off down there.
stu675:
Wheel Nut:
Empty containers are always going to be a problem, it costs more to ship an empty back to China or Taiwan than it does for them to build a new container, there are not enough exports to China.That makes no sense!
What happens to the ship? do they keep building new ships in China and scrapping them in Europe/USA?
It doesn’t have to make sense to us, only to the owners of the containers.
Back in the 80s, I knew a guy whose son worked as a driver in Canada. He got a job with an American haulier shipping containers full of the personal effects of US military from Alaska to Fort Bragg in N. Carolina. I have no idea why they didn’t use rail. He would fly to Anchorage, pick up a loaded truck and drive the 4.5 thousand miles, leave the truck there and fly home. The truck was sold off down there.
stu675:
Wheel Nut:
Empty containers are always going to be a problem, it costs more to ship an empty back to China or Taiwan than it does for them to build a new container, there are not enough exports to China.That makes no sense!
What happens to the ship? do they keep building new ships in China and scrapping them in Europe/USA?
It doesn’t have to make sense to us, only to the owners of the containers.
Back in the 80s, I knew a guy whose son worked as a driver in Canada. He got a job with an American haulier shipping containers full of the personal effects of US military from Alaska to Fort Bragg in N. Carolina. I have no idea why they didn’t use rail. He would fly to Anchorage, pick up a loaded truck and drive the 4.5 thousand miles, leave the truck there and fly home. The truck was sold off down there.
Do the media ever stop ffs.panic buy for xmas now .
Sent from my SM-T976B using Tapatalk
rearaxle:
Do the media ever stop ffs.panic buy for xmas now .Sent from my SM-T976B using Tapatalk
It’s a good way to get the ports clear though.
the maoster:
Stupid Brexit.
If it’s because of Brexit then why is the USA and every other non-European country also having the same problems?
Conor:
the maoster:
Stupid Brexit.If it’s because of Brexit then why is the USA and every other non-European country also having the same problems?
Maybe Maoster should’ve put a smiley there…
Being a newbie here you might not realise that (Being in denial of the true state of things) Maoster wouldn’t blame ANYTHING bad on Brexit.
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PS. [emoji3]
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Ed to add
And this is my first mention of the B word on this thread too!
There’s plenty bad about Brexit my friend, chief amongst which is their refusal to hang a remainer from every other lampost 
Conor:
the maoster:
Stupid Brexit.If it’s because of Brexit then why is the USA and every other non-European country also having the same problems?
Unionised, work to rule dockers 
the maoster:
There’s plenty bad about Brexit my friend, chief amongst which is their refusal to hang a remainer from every other lampost
How?
Shortage of rope innit.
Good point.
> the maoster:
> There’s plenty bad about Brexit my friend, chief amongst which is their refusal to hang a remainer from every other lampost
It’s a design fault that they can’t handle the weight - seems a Tory donor got the lampost contract and weighed remainers at 12ounces
They also had a Remainer’s design that could handle a leaver’s weight of 254 kilos or in Brexit Imperial 40 stones.
The leaver contract won, thanks to our immigrant Prime Minister born in the USA of Turkish roots:- Alexander Boris du Pfeffel Johnson, or to you and me That 4king Scruffy Useless C**NT
I used to be in Felixstowe two or three times a week. Admittedly, a few years ago now, but if I was asked to go now, I would refuse.
Do the crane drivers still stand idle, and let trucks wait until they are ready to lift containers? Who should have to put up with that? Hours added to your day by some inbred yokel.
The problem the South Coast ports have is that as much as 75% of containers received are destined for the North West. There is obviously not a huge amount of drivers at either end who are keen to shuttle between the two.
There is not just a driver shortage, but dock labour shortage. This applies on the continent too. So to blame Brexit is a bit naive. This problem has been brewing for years.
For me, the only answer is bigger railheads and automated cranes loading them. Final mile delivery or collections being a more acceptable job for many drivers now.
Felixstowe and other ports need to free themselves from the bolshie, shyster unionised workforce, and automate as much as possible.
Who would put up with now what we used to have to endure on the docks?
Does anybody remember the free for all to get into 39 Berth in Tilbury after you had booked in? Not for the faint hearted. Hopefully, the delays and shortages now will prompt some positive change within the industry, and make the drivers lot a bit more endurable and acceptable.
The government seem to be wanting to blame Russia for the energy shortage, when it was in fact May’s government who decided it would be a good idea to knock down our remaining power stations, whilst at the same time trashing relations with Russia over “SalisburyGate”.
Personally, I don’t believe this story, as I reckon the EU pressured May to wean us off Russian imported energy, to make us ever-more dependent on EU imports, which might have thwarted Brexit at that point, had it not been for May’s subsequent fall, and Boris winning a full majority…
So fast foward to now - and we see container rates going through the roof worldwide.
As it is unlikely that Brexit has THAT kind of reach - I’m going to assume instead that CHINA are behind this, as most of the stuff ON these containers - happens to be their paid-for exports to the West. No skin off THEIR noses if it gets stuck in the Suez Canal, stuck using the “paperwork” excuse, or just stuck because there are not enough people in the “Just-In-Time” system to process it all.
Inflation - is only rising because there’s too much free furlough and subsidy money chasing too few disrupted goods, that needs people back at work, rather than still out on furlough to actually process it all… Furlough has officially already ended, but now people are still out on “industrial actions” “Untaken Holidays”, and of course “Throwing Sickies because you still want to wear your mask” like continues to happen at the DVLA.
A Global Problem then.
The Answer?
Hows abouts we wean ourselves off Chinese imports outright, and confiscate their entire trading fleet - as due punishment for causing Covid? They can’t have it both ways: Either Covid is real and deadly, and China are to blame OR Covid is a hoax, entirely made up by CCP-Controlled Dr Fauxi who’ll do anything to sell his soul out to the social-scoring far left in the world…
I would expect the next big stage of the Far Left’s master plan to take over the world - is to disrupt our remaining food and goods supply depots at the source, by blockading places like Tescos (not liked, because the Far left are known anti-semitics, with Tesco being Jewish) whilst taking no action against say, the Labour Party, despite them not having much regard for the current leader, who has only kept people like Raynor on - out of fear of Momentum reprisals if Starmer ditched her…
It would be a supreme irony too, if these Greendiots blocked suppies of Biomass on their way to our remaining power stations - disrupting their own “Green Economy” stuff and all. They are not in place to win any political arguments for their cause.
They are merely trying to remove the current government at a time when even those of us that voted for them - wouldn’t mind if we saw the back of them neither!
…If only we could have legallized RIGHT and RIGHTS again huh?
Plenty of people thinking that “Lorry Drivers should just run them over” - which just a few months ago, would have you being kicked off F arseache for posting “Hate Speech”.
Any one remember when Felixtowe first changed from a small sleepy dock to a Container & Ferry Terminal ■■
WE all thought it was a great move, no 4*ing dockers no unions, no messing around, - BLISS 
Fast forward 40 years and what have we got: Unions, Messing Around & Dockers. - What goes around comes round it seems