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Sidenote... I think this might be the first time I've personally heard "There's an app for that" to essentially indicate "this is a solved problem" - even if in

Sidenote... I think this might be the first time I've personally heard "There's an app for that" to essentially indicate "this is a solved problem" - even if in this case it does kind of mean "software exists to solve this problem" in a literal sense. We're only a decade or so out from when "there's an app for that" represented this cool new novel idea that you could install an app on your fancy new smartphone to do something useful. Now it's trivial and commonplace but I could see this slogan sticking around in our vernacular outside of its original context kinda like the save icon. Neat.

Animats 5y ago
I wrote "there's an app for that" because IMC does have an app for that.[1] Also a web site.[2] Drivers need to be able to talk to the container dispatching system. That's a side issue, though. As the number of containers in temporary storage increases, system throughput drops. So, once you get into overload, you're stuck there until you somehow reduce traffic or get more capacity. That seems to be the current situation. It's not just at the US end. Shipify reports about 200 ships stuck waiting to get into Chinese ports.[3] (That article has a good overview of the situation.) At the China end, there's an empty shipping container shortage. Back in July, US farmers were also complaining about an empty shipping container shortage.[4] Ship lines wanted to load up and get out, because the China->US rate is currently much, much higher than the US->China rate. So loading up containers at the US end apparently cost time and profits. The way empties are handled is driven by a system of economic incentives to not hold onto empties, and apparently that's not working well enough to get containers back to someplace useful. Someone has to pay to ship the containers back. [1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/imcs-mydriver/id1299727364 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/imcs-mydriver/id1299727364 [2] https://www.imcsmartstacks.com/ https://www.imcsmartstacks.com/ [3] https://www.shiplilly.com/blog/container-ships-now-piling-up-at-anchorages-off-chinas-ports/ https://www.shiplilly.com/blog/container-ships-now-piling-up... [4] https://www.farmprogress.com/trade/shipping-container-shortage-getting-worse https://www.farmprogress.com/trade/shipping-container-shorta...

Animats 5y ago

I wrote "there's an app for that" because IMC does have an app for that.[1] Also a web site.[2] Drivers need to be able to talk to the container dispatching system. That's a side issue, though. As the number of containers in temporary storage increases, system throughput drops. So, once you get into overload, you're stuck there until you somehow reduce traffic or get more capacity. That seems to be the current situation. It's not just at the US end. Shipify reports about 200 ships stuck waiting to get into Chinese ports.[3] (That article has a good overview of the situation.) At the China end, there's an empty shipping container shortage. Back in July, US farmers were also complaining about an empty shipping container shortage.[4] Ship lines wanted to load up and get out, because the China->US rate is currently much, much higher than the US->China rate. So loading up containers at the US end apparently cost time and profits. The way empties are handled is driven by a system of economic incentives to not hold onto empties, and apparently that's not working well enough to get containers back to someplace useful. Someone has to pay to ship the containers back. [1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/imcs-mydriver/id1299727364 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/imcs-mydriver/id1299727364 [2] https://www.imcsmartstacks.com/ https://www.imcsmartstacks.com/ [3] https://www.shiplilly.com/blog/container-ships-now-piling-up-at-anchorages-off-chinas-ports/ https://www.shiplilly.com/blog/container-ships-now-piling-up... [4] https://www.farmprogress.com/trade/shipping-container-shortage-getting-worse https://www.farmprogress.com/trade/shipping-container-shorta...