The Governor of Florida has said that the state's ports are open and ready to help ease the pressure on America's supply chain crisis.
Ron DeSantis was appearing on Tucker Carlson Tonight when he offered up Florida's ports as an alternative to California in a bid to help alleviate the shipping burden currently placed on overwhelmed ports.
In addition to offering support for stranded ships, DeSantis said the state of Florida was also offering incentives to businesses to encourage them to transport goods through their ports instead.
He said: 'We've got capacity and all of our ports can offer these businesses good incentives if they reroute their ships.
'If you were going to sit off the coast for days on end, you might as well bring it to Florida. We have great logistics on the ground that can get it to market and we are happy to be able to step up because there are empty shelves.'
He added that he believes that Florida can be part of the solution to the current supply chain issues.
Ron DeSantis (right) was appearing on Tucker Carlson Tonight when he offered up Florida's ports as an alternative to California in a bid to help alleviate the shipping burden currently placed on overwhelmed ports
It comes after a Florida port authority invited steamships waiting to dock in California to divert via the Panama Canal to the sunshine state, where there are no backlogs.
The Jacksonville Port Authority said it's the solution to an unprecedented logjam at The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, where weeks-long queues are slowing commerce ahead of the year's busiest shopping season.
It's a sharp contrast from the scene in Jacksonville, which officials said has maintained terminal fluidity – and set a new container volume record - despite market disruptions.
Florida ports council president Michael Rubin said they can expedite cargo ship movement by rerouting container ships via the Panama Canal, a seven-day journey from Southern California to Northern Florida.
It would take seven days for a steamship to travel from Southern California to Northern Florida through the Panama Canal, but Jacksonville port officials say it could be worth the trip
Officials say they can expedite cargo ship movement by rerouting container ships from Southern California to Northern Florida, where there is no backlog of vessels
More records were broken in the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Wednesday when 167 vessels were berthed there and 50 vessels were waiting it out in a 'holding area'
'We have the opportunity to provide those shipping lines and beneficial cargo owners a more efficient route that can get their product not only to the third-largest domestic market in the country but also to other markets outside of Florida, within two days,' Rubin told ABC Action News.
'We realize how important it is to get those goods to market, to not be the grinch that stole Christmas.'
The Jacksonville port set a new container volume record in May, when it moved nearly 129,000 twenty-foot equivalent units through its terminals.
The Jacksonville port - Florida's largest container port by volume - set a new container volume record in May, when it moved nearly 129,000 twenty-foot equivalent units through its terminals
But in LA and Long Beach, officials are struggling to keep pace with the unprecedented number of ships as supply chain disruptions worsen ahead of the holiday season
Florida's largest container port by volume moved a record-breaking 1.4 million cargo containers during the last fiscal year, which ended in September.
While Jacksonville officials celebrated their records, California's ports appear to be breaking all the wrong ones.
The 167 ships moored at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Wednesday broke a record set September 19, when 161 vessels were berthed there, according to according to The Marine Exchange of Southern California
Both figures are markedly higher than during pre-pandemic times, when just 17 ships were anchored.
he 103 container vessels in port Wednesday broke September 19's 100-ship record, according to The Marine Exchange of Southern California
The 103 container vessels in port Wednesday broke September 19's 100-ship record.
Since all the anchorages are full, 50 steamships were waiting it out in holding areas Wednesday within 40 miles of the ports.
It's the highest number of ships in holding areas on record.
Florida Ron DeSantis on Tuesday invited the steamships to move to the golden state for faster processing times.
'Our ports operate 24/7. … We're here. We have capacity,' DeSantis told reporters.
'We want to be sure that Americans get the goods they need, particularly as we approach the Christmas season.'
US Senator Rick Scott (R-Florida) also extended the invitation.
Senator Rick Scott invited shipping companies to Florida, say its ports are 'open for business'
'Florida's ports are open for biz to help get goods back on shelves & mitigate Biden's crippling supply chain crisis that's hurting FL families,' he tweeted.
'I encourage all shipping companies to avoid California's backed up ports & come anchor in the Sunshine State!'
But social media users were quick to question the logic of moving the ships to Jacksonville.
'Do you have truck drivers to get the goods to market?' asked one user.
'Have people to unload them?' pondered another. 'Have truckers to take the stuff to the next destination? Have store workers to unload? Stock? Cashiers? docking a ship is step 1.'
Driving a hard bargain: Haulage firms offer $100,000 salaries and $15,000 bonuses to lure 80,000 truckers and ease supply crisis as empty shipping containers are dumped in streets because California port is full
Haulage companies are offering six-figure salaries and $15,000 sign-on bonuses while struggling to attract 80,000 new drivers who are needed to relieve the nation's supply crisis.
But industry experts said more drivers won't alleviate the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach backlog, where an empty shipping container fiasco is preventing trucks from moving product to consumers.
Facing an exodus of 600,000 retiring truckers by 2028, the transportation industry is desperate to recruit more people and estimates that 80,000 new hires are needed this year to offset attrition and clear a backed-up supply chain.
'I can tell you that pretty much every single one of our members – no matter what part of the industry they're in – is looking for drivers,' Chris Shimoda, senior vice president of government affairs at the California Trucking Association, told DailyMail.com.
'They are raising pay across the board, introducing things like signing and retention bonuses, trying to provide more local driving opportunities so that the drivers can be home with their families at night, but it's been a real struggle for several years.'
Companies are offering lucrative sign-on and retention bonuses in an attempt to lure more people into the truck driving industry, which seeks to hire 80,000 more drivers this year
Lorries laden with empty shipping containers are now parking in residential neighborhoods, such as Wilmington in California, because there is no space at ports
Local residents complain that the trucks are blocking their driveways after being abandoned by the drivers
The supply chain crisis has seen a backlog of containers build up at ports meaning that empty ones can't be returned because there is no room for them
US Foods, seeking a Northern Californian with a commercial driver's license (CDL), is offering a $15,000 sign-up bonus and a $1,000 quarterly bonus to candidates willing to work for $38.50 an hour.
And last June, JK Moving Services said it would guarantee its qualified drivers a salary of at least $100,000 as 'market demands grow and the pool of qualified candidates shrinks.'
It's all happening as shipping backlogs delay cripple the supply chain, with Christmas toys and holiday goodies among the items stranded in the Pacific as freightliners queue for weeks to unload cargo.
Truck drivers' wages have spiked by about 20 percent as companies work to lure newcomers into the industry, Shimoda said.
Some trucking companies are offering six-figure salaries to persuade prospective hires during a time when demand outweighs supply and California's biggest ports are backed up
Chris Shimoda, a California Trucking Association exec, CDLs are 'worth their weight in gold'
'The industry is really using every tool at their disposal to try to get drivers in the door and to get them to stay,' he said. 'It's a driver's world right now. If you have a commercial driver's license, it's worth its weight in gold right now.
'It's a good time to have a have a CDL.'
But more drivers won't solve all the transportation industry's problems at the embattled Ports of Long Angeles and Long Beach, experts said.
Matt Schrap, chief executive of the Harbor Trucking Association, said thousands of empty containers are creating a nightmare for drivers trying to move product.
There's no truck driver shortage in the Long Beach and Los Angeles areas, where a steady stream of transports is coming and going to keep the movement of commerce flowing
A group of 160 Republican lawmakers have addressed the importance of fixing the supply chain crisis in a letter to President Joe Biden while attacking his embattled spending proposals.
The letter, led and signed by Representative Sam Graves, was sent to Biden on Wednesday in an attempt to further address the urgency of the crisis.
The current supply chain crisis has caused a delay in shipping multiple products to stores and warehouses which has resulted in a months-long shortage of multiple products, amid warnings that the crisis will get even worse before it improves.
TGS Logistics Inc chief operations officer Robert Loya said the cost of storing the containers is driving some small trucking companies out of business
Right now, the mass congestion of empty containers is monopolizing space in nearby truck lots, blocking filled containers from getting moved, and crippling efficiency.
In order to fetch a new order at the port, trucks must first return their previously-used container to the steamships – but with space at a premium, cargo operators are refusing to accept the empty containers.
'What we're seeing in [Long Beach and L.A.] is really an issue around productivity, not necessarily a lack of drivers,' Schrap told DailyMail.com.
'It's a function of our inability to return empty containers back into the port to pull the important loads off the docks.'
The empty containers aren't just taking up space.
They're also preventing truckers from freeing up their chassis, a piece of equipment necessary to wheel loads of cargo onto modular trailers for delivery.
'It is extremely inefficient,' Schrap said. 'We are essentially moving containers around for the operational needs of the steamship lines and not being compensated for it.'
As far as the eye can see, cargo trucks wait in long lines to enter the LA port on October 13
To top it off, ship operators are charging trucking companies – stuck with storing the equipment on their own lots - a per
