A Bentley driving thug with possible mafia ties is holding America hostage with a port strike. We can automate our ports within 5 years and solve this problem once and for all. Here’s how to do it…
How Ports Work
Today, our ports require a ton of labor.
Humans onsite move containers (also known as TEU’s) off ships using giant gantry cranes. Cranes put the TEU’s onto trucks or trains. If they’re not ready to go yet, they stack them onsite temporarily.
Each crane has multiple operators. Every truck has a human driver.
At American ports, little has changed since I was a boy. But in the rest of the world, ports look very different.
Getting to Rotterdam
The Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands is one of the largest ports on earth. It’s also one of the most highly automated.
Nearly everything at the port is done by machines. Some humans are required to operate the port, but they sit comfortably in offices offsite.
The labor savings are considerable. The port can also handle more cargo faster.
Cost and Timeline
It took about 5 years to automate the Port of Rotterdam.
The project began in 2010 and was largely complete by 2015. It cost around $500 million.
The biggest port affected by the current strike is the Port of New York and New Jersey, just a few miles from where I sit. It handles around 8 million TEU’s a year versus about 13 million at Rotterdam.
Given its smaller size, we should be able to automate the Port of NY/NJ in under 5 years for under a billion dollars. Since other US ports are almost all smaller, we should be able to do those even faster and cheaper.
And since the humans in automated ports are all in offices, we can just as easily hire people in Manila. This could save even more money.
What’s more, new technologies are available today that didn’t exist in 2010. Robotics companies like Gecko Robotics could create systems to make us even more efficient than Rotterdam.
I spoke with Founder & CEO Jake Loosararian on Twitter yesterday. He confirmed that Gecko’s robots could be used at the ports.
These robots are incredible. Here’s a video of some of them at work:
Busting a Thuggish Union
But what about the union? To hell with them.
These people make six figures and they want to hold Americans hostage for more? If they get the giant wage increases they want, the public will pay more for everything. Most people already make far less money than these dock workers.
Ronald Reagan busted the air traffic controllers union in 1981. The situation was similar — highly paid workers controlling critical infrastructure were holding the nation hostage.
The President should tell the dock workers to return to work within 24 hours. If they do not, their resignation is accepted.
While we work on automating the ports, we can hire replacement workers to staff them. We can also call on our military to fill jobs as necessary.
Wrap-Up
No one gets to hold America hostage. Not dock workers, not anyone.
For too long, we’ve let our ports fall behind technologically. The union is against automation, and we’ve caved every step of the way.
No more. Throw them off the property, automate it, and solve this problem once and for all.
What do you think of the port strike?
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