Shipping Product to Los Angeles and then up to Canada Costs You Time and Money!

I was just reading through an article in the L.A. Times about the problems that they are having at the L.A – Long Beach ports as the holidays come closer. In the article they state that “The twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are experiencing a logistical nightmare as they struggle to ease a bottleneck that could undermine retailers’ all-important holiday shopping season and threaten the competitiveness of the region’s economic engine”. In the worst shipping crisis in a decade, mammoth vessels loaded with products destined for the nation’s stores are sitting idle just off the coast, waiting for cargo languishing on the docks to clear. “We have a meltdown on the harbor,” said Robert Curry, president of California Cartage Co., a trucking firm that serves the two ports. “Every day it gets worse.” Here is a link to the story:

https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-port-congestion-20141025-story.html

I was just thinking about the costs involved here, especially when you’re shipping from China into California and then shipping up to Canada to service Canadian Mass Retailers like Wal-Mart, Costco and Canadian Tire. 

First of all, you have the added day or two that it takes to get to California instead of landing in Port Vancouver. Next, if it’s taking 7 to 10 days to unload as opposed to 48 hours in Vancouver, you’re wasting a lot of time getting your product to market. Add the other 2 – 4 days and the cost of freight to get to BC. or Ontario from California and the dollars add up REALLY quick. It’s pretty tough to make money if your product’s not on the shelf! BTW, don’t forget the added cost of unloading the product in California and then paying that again in Canada (this double handling does take place in some instances that I’m aware of). Oh yeah, we haven’t even talked about potential duty savings.

Based upon all of this information, the case has never been stronger to use a company like McKenna Logistics to receive your products in the west. Our Vancouver Logistics company was built for this reason. So take advantage of it and save yourself time and money getting to market!