The NY Times looks at the supply chain and vehicles

[Coloradonatives]

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/02/business/supply-chain-car-shipping.html

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[JakeC]

Good article.

 

[Last Ride Bronco]

Well, for those that could read it, what was the bottom line?

 

[Ylekiot]

As soon as the page loads keep hitting escape to prevent the paywall from running. After a bunch of times hitting escape you can stop hitting the button and read it.

 

[pfd799]

The article is behind a paywall but I’m willing to bet that this article is political.

The admin thinks I’m being political by stating the obvious.

Maybe someone will post the article and we can see who’s right.

It’s not even remotely political, perhaps it’s just nobody wants to hear political hot takes on a car forum.

Cliff notes are the article is about a car hauling company, this one interviews the manager of one of their branches which hauls for a GM plant in Kansas. He discusses the issues of inconsistent cargo due to inconsistent build numbers from supply chain issues to the plant. This causes him to have difficulty hiring the proper amount of drivers as one day may require 30 cars to be shipped and one may require 200. He also discusses difficulty finding good drivers, despite being a union job with 90k base salary and pension he says many qualified drivers he wants to hire get offered up to 3x that pay to stay at their current companies, requiring him to consider lowering his standards. This probably gives a lot of insight into why so many Broncos have been built and are in limbo

 

[Coloradonatives]

Well, for those that could read it, what was the bottom line?

What I got from it is that manufacturers worldwide have bought into an automated delivery system that sets up each item far in advance (your train car or truck # for example), and if ANYTHING keeps the item from being available for shipping at the moment it was supposed to, there is not a competent back-up plan from the shipping companies. Obviously, this also applies to inbound (parts). The system is frail and now relies on the individual truck drivers and the railroads to pick up the slack- only their plate is full as they are also obligated to empty ports and hubs. There are no "extra" rail cars, truckers, etc.

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