Officials say relief could come by the end of the year for congestion at the Port of Savannah, but issues farther down the supply chain are likely to persist for several more months.
Despite the increased pressure put on the supply chain since the pandemic started, Gov. Brian Kemp says Georgia ports have continued to expand their capacity.
“A lot of these issues that they’re working on have been in the plans for a long time,” Kemp said at a supply-chain roundtable discussion Monday. “They’ve obviously accelerated some of those, cause you had a 20% increase in volume last year.”
Griff Lynch, executive director of the Georgia Ports Authority, says they’re also taking emergency measures like opening pop-up container yards and re-opening unused rail terminals. The U.S Department of Transportation recently released $8 million to help with efforts to ease congestion.
“What that’s going to do is help us flush cargo out of our facility, get it to where it needs to be or put it on the ground so that we can open up our yard to be a little more efficient and quicker with handling the ships,” said Lynch.
He says in the next six months, the ports will add 1.2 million TEU, or 20-foot equivalent units to its capacity. It’s a measure used in shipping to reflect the volume of a 20-foot long container.
“As we create space in our terminal, we can handle vessels more quickly, it’s that simple,” he said.
But less simple is solving the nationwide shortage of truck drivers.
Kemp is calling on the federal government to expedite a training program that would let truck drivers under the age of 21 haul cargo between states. The program was included in the infrastructure bill signed into law last week.
Spencer Moore, director of Georgia’s Department of Driver Services, says the average age of a commercial driver’s license holder in Georgia is 52. Mitch Sheppard with the Georgia-based trucking company Howard Sheppard says they’re facing a serious labor shortage.
“Getting young people into this industry is something that we’ve got to figure out how to do in a safe way,” said Sheppard. “The technology is there: there’s cameras, there’s speed restrictions; you can limit weight restrictions, limit their hours more than a normal driver.”
Gov. Kemp also said the mandate that requires federal contractors to require vaccinations of their employees will further exacerbate the truck driver shortage. Georgia is suing the federal government over the mandate.
