Shipping container Inflation! (700%)

[MickAK]

I really don't feel like the longshoreman's strike was that long ago, so I'm surprised that there's so much ignorance in this thread, but I guess people forget things quickly.

Unloading ships has been a goatfuck for decades because the longshoreman union is very well put together and doesn't take any shit. This is the case from San Diego to Nome. They're incorrigible lazy motherfuckers to deal with.

Amateurs think tactics and professionals think logistics.

Walmart can charter all the ships it wants but without some healthy bribes up in LBC it ain't moving shit. Which is what happened. Right palms got greased.

[Catshooter]

Wonder where all of a sudden they're gonna find twice the crane operators/truck drivers and trucks?

Well, the Fed.gov has stepped in, so we can all relax. What could go wrong?

[peterb]

Speaking of the truck driver shortage….
——————-
A high school in California is now training teens to enter the industry through its truck driving school program.

Patterson High School in Patterson, Calif., is one of the first non-vocational high schools in the country to offer a truck-driving program for students.

The elective course, which is open to seniors, is a part of the school's Career Technical Education Program — helping students learn workplace skills through hands-on training.

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/13/10454...f-truck-driver

[Welder]

Good for that High School.

Meanwhile we're phasing out the ability of people to get their CDL licenses by studying the book and then taking the test with one of their employers' trucks (this is how I got my CDL all those years ago, BTW). Starting I believe in Feb, you *must* take a class with an approved instructor if you're an entry-level wannabe driver, which of course will mean thousands of dollars out of your pocket. I know I didn't hardly have two silver dollars to rub together when I passed my CDL test. Those CDL classes the local community college was offering at the same time were $5,000. There was no way.

So I guess what's going to happen is that if our goal is to still have people entering the trucking industry, the trucking companies or the fed gov't will subsidize people taking these classes, and it'll be one more burden on the end purchaser / taxpayer.

Don't get me wrong, classroom instruction is great, but IMO eliminating the path for self-starters isn't so great. I wonder if anybody did the research and determined that people who went through classroom instruction were in fact safer drivers....5, 10 years down the road. If so, then I'm for the concept. But I do wonder if this is another visit from the Good Idea Fairy.

[rcbusmc24]

A guild is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen, belonging to: a professional association, a trade union, a cartel, and/or a secret society. They sometimes depended on grants of letters patent from a monarch or other ruler to enforce the flow of trade to their self-employed members, and to retain ownership of tools and the supply of materials, but were mostly regulated by the city government. A lasting legacy of traditional guilds are the guildhalls constructed and used as guild meeting-places. Guild members found guilty of cheating on the public would be fined or banned from the guild.

Typically the key "privilege" was that only guild members were allowed to sell their goods or practice their skill within the city. There might be controls on minimum or maximum prices, hours of trading, numbers of apprentices, and many other things. As well as reducing free competition, but sometimes maintaining a good quality of work. Often these rules made it difficult or impossible for women, immigrants to the city, and non-Christians to run businesses working in the trade....

Why do I post this?... Because a thought entered my mind the other day that a lot of medieval style stuff seems to be coming back into vogue in the modern era. The general destruction of the wage earning middle class, the ever higher educational "requirements" and "certifications' of dubious value for various jobs that seem suspiciously like a protection racket, the general debt entrapment of the younger generations, and the increase in emphasis many seem to be putting on othering each other in order to devalue them for eventual exploitation. When I put it all together, I sometimes get the feeling that some of our rentier elites are trying to recreate feudal Europe..... and they are succeeding...

[Joe in PNG]

A guild is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen, belonging to: a professional association, a trade union, a cartel, and/or a secret society. They sometimes depended on grants of letters patent from a monarch or other ruler to enforce the flow of trade to their self-employed members, and to retain ownership of tools and the supply of materials, but were mostly regulated by the city government. A lasting legacy of traditional guilds are the guildhalls constructed and used as guild meeting-places. Guild members found guilty of cheating on the public would be fined or banned from the guild.

Typically the key "privilege" was that only guild members were allowed to sell their goods or practice their skill within the city. There might be controls on minimum or maximum prices, hours of trading, numbers of apprentices, and many other things. As well as reducing free competition, but sometimes maintaining a good quality of work. Often these rules made it difficult or impossible for women, immigrants to the city, and non-Christians to run businesses working in the trade....

Why do I post this?... Because a thought entered my mind the other day that a lot of medieval style stuff seems to be coming back into vogue in the modern era. The general destruction of the wage earning middle class, the ever higher educational "requirements" and "certifications' of dubious value for various jobs that seem suspiciously like a protection racket, the general debt entrapment of the younger generations, and the increase in emphasis many seem to be putting on othering each other in order to devalue them for eventual exploitation. When I put it all together, I sometimes get the feeling that some of our rentier elites are trying to recreate feudal Europe..... and they are succeeding...

It's something I've noticed as well. Plus, panem et circenses is a proven long term method of turning free citizens into serfs. UBI is a great idea, until you find yourself given a guaranteed lifetime green job for you and your children, with free eco-friendly tiny house. Just don't fall afoul of the sumptuary laws, get too mad about just prime noctus, and be sure to tug your forelock when speaking to your betters.

[Wondering Beard]

I sometimes get the feeling that some of our rentier elites are trying to recreate feudal Europe..... and they are succeeding...

It is in the nature of politics that those who become powerful want a system in which they don't get to lose that power.

[peterb]

Example: My state requires more training hours to be a licensed hairdresser than a licensed EMT.

I’ll be less cynical and say that some of these education and licensing requirements probably come from a sincere desire to protect consumers.(there are some truly nasty chemicals used on hair and nails) That said, I’d be in favor of replacing mandatory licensing with mandatory disclosure for some jobs. You want to be a barber? Ok, but your sign has to clearly state “Unlicensed”. Let customers decide if there’s value in the certification.

Homebuilt aircraft must have a clearly visible plaque in the cockpit stating “Experimental…does not comply with federal safety regulations for standard aircraft” so that passengers know what they’re getting into. Taking a similar approach to some occupations seems like a reasonable option.

[Borderland]

Wonder where all of a sudden they're gonna find twice the crane operators/truck drivers and trucks?

Well, the Fed.gov has stepped in, so we can all relax. What could go wrong?

I'm pretty sure that longshoremen aren't going to bust their ass working a bunch of overtime. At some point the increased deductions on the overtime reduces it to about the same rate as straight time. Who wants to work a 60 hr week for straight time. This is CA we're talking about. A good percentage of those overtime paychecks will go to the state and union pensions.

Where I worked I was constantly asked to work 60 hours a week to keep up with contractors schedules. Because of our union there was no mandatory overtime for hourly workers. When I broke it down the money I actually ended up keeping wasn't enough for me to work those 60 hour weeks. I did work some overtime when I could see an honest need for it but it was rare. Mostly the requests were because of mismanagement of schedules and resources which wasn't a part of my job.

So yeah, somebody else is going to pick up the slack.

[GJM]

WSJ today:

Demand for consumer products has been unusually strong since countries began to reopen their economies. This has put pressure on global transport routes and increased the cost of logistics. In the first quarter of 2020, a company could ship goods by sea for $1,600 per 40-foot equivalent unit, or roughly one large shipping container. By September 2021, the bill had climbed to $10,200, Bernstein analysis shows.

Air and road travel is also pricier, as there are fewer jets in the skies and transport firms are struggling to hire drivers. Europe is short of approximately 400,000 truckers, according to Transport Intelligence estimates. A similar shortage in the U.S. pushed spot rates for dry trucks up 13% on the year by the third quarter.