Chunker partners with California to provide pop-up shipping container yards
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the global supply chain and logistics. On the heels of struggling to fulfill orders, retailers stockpiled goods to hedge against supply chain disruptions. But in today's market, retailers and logistic companies face a new shock to the system: overfilled warehouses.
The shortage of warehouse and industrial space has been the latest fallout from the pandemic and has created major logjams at the ports. From labor shortages, trucking, and dockworkers, the squeeze is creating a new way of thinking about how to manage storage and handle distribution.
Recently, the Biden Administration announced plans to address the long-term weaknesses of the country’s supply chain industry. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) is now making a generational investment in ports, highways and other parts of the country’s physical infrastructure, revolutionizing out-of-date protocols within the freight and logistical supply chain industries, moving critical goods from ship-to-shelf in a much faster and ultimately more affordable way.
A new commitment to building and buying materials and products in America — rather than relying on foreign producers — will also speed things up within the supply chain as won’t need to be as much waiting for port congestion to clear. Private companies are already working overtime to solve the supply chain issue locally, making innovative partnerships with their region to ease these supply chain issues.
Pop-Up Yards
Chunker, which provides short-term warehouse space and is the largest off-port container storage company in California, recently partnered with the State of California to create pop-up shipping container yards as a solution toward solving the supply chain crisis in California.
Governor Newsom has signed six leases of various state property lots in California that the company will use to store full and empty containers that would have otherwise been stuck at the ports, for as long as companies need to catch up to consumer demand.
Chunker will help coordinate and facilitate communication between ports, shipping companies, and cargo owners to help move these containers as quickly and efficiently as possible to free up more space in the ports.
“The solution will provide a direct and immediate impact, because the quicker product can move from the ports, the more product overall can be shipped,” said Brad Wright, CEO, Chunker.
Container storage is a major component of the congestion at the ports as well as a part of the nationwide supply chain crisis.
Additionally, 40% of all seaborne imports travel through the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, so clearing congestion there has huge implications for the nation’s supply chain. Having access to the state property will allow Chunker to store 20,000 containers or more, which will free up a significant amount of space at the ports, according to Wright.
“This partnership between Chunker and the State of California will go a long way toward moving the needle for U.S. supply chains,” he said. “Chunker can quickly load and unload containers, whether they are empty or full.”
Chunker’s technology quickly detects where containers are located and where there is empty space available, allowing trucks to get back out on the road quickly to keep the supply chain moving. Also, the company is very flexible in terms of how long it will store chassis.
“We can store containers for as long or as short a time as companies/shippers need, which is vitally important in this new era of companies needing to be flexible on a moment’s notice, to the constant changes that COVID brings to global supply chains,” Wright explained.
Pointing to its partnership with the State of California, Chunker is poised to do the same thing across the country to solve the supply chain crisis nationwide, he added.