What causes car shipping delays? At Ship Overseas, we do everything in our power to ensure that your vehicle arrives at its destination in time. You are here because you are anxiously waiting for your car to arrive at its destination. Ship Overseas has been in business for over 30 years.
In that time, we have transported all types of vehicles to countries around the globe. In most instances, shipping happens smoothly and on schedule. However, there may be delays that are beyond our control. We thought we should take the time to explain some of them in this article.
Please note that in the majority of cases, the delays that are experienced are just delays. It doesn’t mean that something untoward has happened to your precious car. So, you shouldn’t be too worried. One great thing about our service is that you can track where your car is at any given point in time.
The Covid 19 Pandemic
The Covid 19 pandemic has been one of the major causes of car shipping delays in recent days. Raging since 2019, the disease has disrupted the flow of goods around the world in ways that would have been unimaginable a little while back. Suddenly the world has become insular. Countries such as China, Australia and New Zealand have been using hard lockdowns to keep the disease out.
In some cases, whole ports are being affected as people get sick. As a result, you may experience delays in receiving your vehicle at these and other destinations. In fact, demand for shipping has itself become rather threadbare as economies around the world struggle with the disease. Shipping has been one of the biggest casualties of the pandemic. Fortunately, restrictions are beginning to be loosened as people learn to live with Covid 19.
Russia’s war in Ukraine
Russia’s war in Ukraine has been another major cause of global shipping delays in recent times. In fact, Russia’s attack could very well turn out to be the biggest factor leading to the fragmentation of the world’s shipping. Just watching the news, one gets the feeling that dire times beckon, and not just for the shipping industry.
In response to the attack, the West has slapped a raft of sanctions on Russia. These are bound to negatively affect the flow of goods from one end of the world to the other. Indeed, a lot of companies have been fleeing from Russia, terrified of the prospect of falling foul to the unprecended sanctions.
Ukraine itself is getting battered, with key shipping infrastructure being turned into battlegrounds. The damage that is currently being wrought will probably take decades to undo. But what does this all mean for the auto shipping industry. At this juncture, there is no prospect of shipping anything to Ukraine, let alone cars.
So, if you had a vehicle in transit, you will have to make some adjustments. When it comes to shipping to Russia, it has also become almost impossible. As already mentioned, a lot of companies have been leaving the territory. Nobody wants to be associated with the carnage that’s going on in Ukraine.
These events and the disruptions to the flow of cargo will likely cause shipping delays even to other destinations around the globe. That’s something that you will need to keep in mind if you had a vehicle on the way. Fortunately most shipping companies allow you to track exactly where you vehicle is. So, that should help ease your mind.
Weather conditions
Other than the above mentioned causes of car shipping delays, there are other, more “natural,” factors that contribute to the late arrival of your vehicle at its destination. Perhaps the biggest of these are weather conditions. This applies whether your car is being shipped by road or by ship.
Conditions on the road or at sea are unpredictable. That can cause delays in delivery of your car. So, that’s another factor that you need to consider. When a car is being transported by road, as an example from the U.S to Canada, it will be delayed if there is snow or heavy rain along the way. The same applies if there is heavy fog along the way.
Port congestion
Recent days have seen a veritable shipping traffic jam, with hundreds of ships waiting to be offloaded at ports. That could be another reason why your car has failed to arrive on time. If you check your traffic data, you will probably notice that the vessel carrying your ship has been struck at a port for a while.
At the beginning of the year, there were reports of hundreds of ships struggling to get berths at Los Angeles and Long Beach ports. So, if your vehicle was scheduled to be shipped overseas from these and other ports experiencing the same problem, delays would have been inevitable. The issue was a spillover from 2021 and it’s likely to continue to affect shipping schedules well into the future.
Labor shortages
There has been a major shortage of skilled labor across the fold in the United States. The shipping industry has not been spared. Simply put, there are not enough people to ensure that goods move from one point to the other smoothly.
As an example, the country has been suffering from a shortage of truck drivers for a while now. These jobs are not for the fainthearted. A lot of people would rather make a living some other way.
What you can do counter car shipping delays
Those are some of the reasons for the car shipping delays that have getting common in recent days. But what can you do to counter these issues? In all earnest, there is very little that you can do in most instances. There is no way, as an example, for you to deal with the labor shortages that are being experienced within the industry.
What you can do is to try and account for the lost time when making your plans. You also need to be patient. We have already noted that you can track where your vehicle is at any given point in time. That should help alleviate the anxiety that you may be feeling while waiting for your car to arrive at its destination