With 2022 just starting, we can safely say that the pandemic started a few years ago. Even after so much time, we can still feel the impact it has on different levels of our lives. Shipping and logistics companies have felt the pandemic consequences the most. A lot was lost, and there are still visible problems and congestions. The supply chain has also suffered tremendously, because of congested sea ports. That why people came up with a clever solution, pop-up container yards. Now you are probably asking yourself how pop-up container yards benefit supply chain flow? Read on to find out more about the topic.
How do pop-up container yards benefit supply chain flow?
The primary aim of these ports is to function as temporary, small scale inland ports. When shipping container from Canada to Saudi Arabia for example, rail will transport those containers. When they arrive to the pop-up yards, people will transfer them to trucks, therefore reducing the pressure around the seaport.
Pop-up container yards benefit supply chain flow by bringing the seaport closer to:
- Population centers, aka. Big cities.
- Manufacturing
- Agricultures
Retailers like Walmart have opened private container yards, in order to help with the overflow in some of the busiest US ports. A lot of them are near the ports of LA and Long Beach. They are processing an amazing number of 500 containers each day! Imagine how much pressure that takes off from the already clogged seaports.
How bad was the port congestions?
The average dwell time has doubled during the pandemic, compared to the years before that. The pre-pandemic average was about two days. However, during the chaos of the pandemic, 40,000 containers were trapped for over five days in some ports. One third of those containers were there for over 13 days before cargo transportation services KSA could pick them up.
Container yards ensure the smooth movement of containers
People invented pop-up container yards in order to speed up the freight forwarding of containers. Instead of everything being transported by ship, logistics companies also transport by rail and truck. This has been the major challenge for the supply chain during the pandemic. The pandemic, which only contributed to the clogged ports slowed pallet racking Saudi Arabia down, among other logistics operations. It is a frustrating experience for people who depend on that. You don’t want the containers there for a second longer than they have to be. Imagine behind schedule ships just idling in the water, because the docks were too full for them to unload. Trucks couldn’t leave the empty containers because they had no space where to leave them. All of this led to a massive chaos, that was only partly solved by pop-up container yards.
How pop-up container yards benefit supply chain flow – conclusion
When there is a major crisis like it happened in the past years, companies need to adapt to the new circumstances in order to survive on the market. How pop-up container yards benefit supply chain flow is just one way of adapting. With time, people will come up with more solutions, and at one point, things will go back to the pre pandemic levels.
