PORT BRAGGING RIGHTS

Political infighting at the Capitol, as fierce as ever, may well slow down the process of converting good ideas into legislation and, eventually, authorisation of funds. The good news is that the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave the port sector a “B-“ mark in its annual report card of various infrastructure sectors, way above the “C-“ earned by USA infrastructure overall.

For ports, ASCE explains the challenge as follows: “… a port’s success is reliant on the infrastructure outside of its gates, which is often congested or in poor condition. For example, just nine per cent of intermodal connector pavement — the portions of roadway that connect a port to other modes — are in good or very good condition….” This is a different way of stating the obvious- that “a (supply) chain is only as strong as its weakest link”.

Port executives cannot go around filling potholes, so what to do? The ASCE write-up points to the answer, stressing employment and dollars, “30.8 million jobs in 2018 and 26 per cent of the total GDP” is tied to seaports. Ports need to keep hammering that national message. In each case, there is a local angle as well, so that regional contributions (sometimes invisible where the ports are far from population centres or tourist destinations) must also be highlighted.

The ASCE notes that smaller ports sometimes face difficulties in applying for Federal grant money. The answer here is also to look regionally, many states may offer funding programmes that are not as well-known as USDOT/ MARAD sources.

Another aspect of port messaging is the pro-activity in expediting movements of cargo around the docks. At a time that “congestion”, “vessels at anchor” and “long wait times” are trumpeted around the news, I’ve seen some forward-thinking efforts to improve flows at terminals with what deep sea shipping folks might call “Market Based Measures”.

OK, it’s not as complicated as carbon trading, but in practical terms, ports can offer financial incentives for speedier landside truck turnarounds. Plus, yes, they should brag very loudly about what they are doing.