November 05, 2021

Why Are US Logistics Under So Much Strain? + E-commerce Challenges (feat. Marshall Taplits)

40 minutes

In this episode...

Renaud catches up with American supply chain and logistics expert, Marshall Taplits founder of Ship It Done a 3PL warehouse and e-commerce fulfillment center based on the East Coast, to talk about the difficult supply chain and logistics situation in the USA in the past couple of years. He answers: What's causing the logjams at ports? Is there a difference between East and West coast ports? Is transport overland or by air also problematic?

Marshall also sheds some light on how SMEs and e-commerce vendors can cope with the difficult situation, and some of the key challenges they face such as choosing between FBM and FBA and whether or not to ship nationally from one local warehouse.

There's been a lot of talk about how America's logistics system is broken in the media, so let's hear it from someone who's there working in this industry right now!

Show Sections

00:00 - Greetings & introducing Marshall Taplits & Ship It Done

04:19 - What's causing the logjams at US ports, logistics to fail under the strain, and delays in getting products to customers? Is it as simple as, 'people have been buying more stuff due to lockdown?'

07:42 - The move to 'Just In Case' buying.

11:26 - Why is delivery to US ports being held up? Is simply it a lack of road and rail capacity to move goods away after delivery?

15:23 - Is the government likely to be able to bring about changes to improve the logistics situation?

17:37 - Could the 3-4 week break for manufacturers during Chinese New Year give the USA some much-needed breathing room to clear the excess goods and stabilize the supply chain situation?

23:41 - What can SMEs do to weather the storm, are there any workarounds?

27:20 - How about ports on the East Coast, are they less congested than California?

30:27 - What's the situation with air cargo?

31:41 - The difference between FBM and FBA and what frontloading by air means and their benefits for e-commerce vendors.

35:38 - Is it faster these days to send a container from China to California Long Beach or New York Elizabeth?

36:20 - When shipping FBM is it cheaper to post products locally within the US than longer distances?

39:04 - Wrapping up