How long the strike will last is unknown at this point. Every day of shutdown will likely add about a week of backlog and delays to your imports once the ports reopen. If the strike lasts a week or more, the repercussions will take many months to return to normal.

Maybe your containers stuck in port right now will experience a manageable delay, but those on the water, sailing to the U.S. East Coast and Gulf, will be waiting behind many other vessels to be unloaded. For containers offloaded at foreign ports like Freeport, Kingston, or Cartagena, the wait could be even longer.

So, what can you do right now when it seems like there’s nothing you can do? It’s a good time for a WOWL demo—ask about that!    

Hopefully, you’ve already started to get organized. Map out all your imports that are in transit, on their way, or stuck at a U.S. port. Create a spreadsheet with all the critical information: container number, origin/shipper, destination port and final destination, ocean carrier, vessel name, forwarder or NVO, sail date, original ETA to destination port, etc. Include a manifest of what’s inside each container. Someone in your organization—or a customer—will be hunting down needed products, and you should know where they are and where they’re supposed to go. You can then prioritize incoming containers based on the urgency of the products. Flag high-priority containers with your internal team and external partners. Containers with less urgent products can wait, and sometimes it’s preferable to pay demurrage on those to prioritize the containers with essential items.

“Know where your cans are and which you need the most, then keep those moving the best you CAN,” — Arthur B. (ex-SAFM).

All this preparation will help you, your business, or your customers get what they need most, as quickly as possible. Create that map and keep updating it. Priorities are likely to keep changing even after the ports reopen and the backlog and congestion persist.

Once the situation returns to normal, conduct an after-action review with your team. Include your key logistics providers. If you're a 3PL, forwarder, or other logistics provider, this is the time to prove your value to your clients. What did you do well? What could you have done better? How can you improve your program?

WOWL is not a carrier, forwarder, broker, or dray carrier. But WOWL manages all of their critical data for you. So, another thing to consider is building a better logistics program after this crisis is resolved. Do a WOWL demo and see how easy and affordable it is to upgrade your logistics program.