Workshop: Keeping Counties Moving: Understanding the Role of Freight Transportation as an Economic Engine

Lack of deep-water ports puts U.S. at competitive disadvantage 

John Vickerman, president of port design firm Vickerman Associates, described the global freight environment and the trends that have driven it  in this workshop on Feb. 22.

Transoceanic freight stands out because the vast majority of consumer goods are shipped. 

“Cargo will flow down river to the lowest cost, best service levels,” he said, noting that a one-day difference in delivery time was enough to make a shipper rethink things.

Shipping times will change with improvements to the Panama and Suez canals and the westward migration  of manufacturing and production hubs toward southeast Asia from China. Still, six of the 10 busiest ports in the world remain on the Chinese mainland, with three others elsewhere in Asia.

Capacity is also an issue, though, and as freight ships get larger, they need deeper ports, and the lack of deep water ports in North America is contributing to a competitive disadvantage

“We have 386 public port authorities in North America, but ocean carriers do not consider us a best option,” Vickerman said.

What shippers want in ports is two-day transit by land to Chicago, and three-day transit to New York and New Jersey.

Steve Cernak, director of Port Everglades in Broward County, Fla., which handles domestic and international cargo and can connect to 70 percent of the U.S. population within two days, he said.

“Our industry requires consistent reinvestment,” he said. “We have $1.6 billion capital that we’ll be reinvesting over 20 years, but we have to use public private partnerships, we have to diversify our funding.”

Commissioner Brittany Pittman described how Murray County, Ga. used an inland port to revive a stagnant rural economy.

“We had rail, a manufacturing workforce and an excellent U.S. highway system to help,” she said. “All were underutilized resources.”

The port will load shipping trailers carried by truck onto trails that will make a nearly-400-mile trip to Georgia’s port north of Savannah.

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