House committee holds hearing on supply chain challenges for Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania House Democratic Policy Committee recently hosted a hearing addressing Pennsylvania’s supply chain challenges.

Online sales were forecasted to surpass $11.5 million on Black Friday. The goods will reach Pennsylvanians via roads, ports, and railway lines.

Testifiers included representatives from the Port of Philadelphia, trucking labor leaders in Pennsylvania, and the retail industry in southwest Pennsylvania.

“There is a strain on our supply chain – both because consumer spending has changed, and because of systemic issues happening with our workforce and infrastructure,” state Rep. Mary Isaacson (D-Philadelphia), said. “As a member who represents the city of Philadelphia, I know that the pandemic continues to bring challenges to the supply chain, particularly in the Port of Philadelphia. We are committed to learning what the challenges are and how we can address them.”

Jeff Theobald, PhilaPort executive director and CEO, submitted remarks to the committee via a written statement.

Theobald said the major causes of supply chain issues are a lack of labor, full warehouses, a lack of rail capacity, equipment shortages brought about by COVID and disruptions overseas, and container ships brought to the port because of problems at other ports.

“More importantly in the long term, Philadelphia is one of the only major ports that is not dual rail served for containers,” Theobald said. “Norfolk Southern has chosen not to open-up their intermodal yard in South Philadelphia, and CSX has reduced services to Philadelphia – this despite the fact that we were the fastest growing port in the USA last year. There are great opportunities for the railroads to cooperate with us to grow Pennsylvania’s transportation resources and our economy. We will discuss below how we have helped rail operations during this crisis; they, in turn, will need to provide more services to The Port of Philadelphia. The railroads can significantly help the immediate supply chain crisis and be a partner for the Port’s long-term growth.”

Theobald also stressed that the streets near the port are not laid out properly and are too narrow to handle the port’s growth. The port needs faster connections from its marine terminals to I-95 and I-76, he said.

The state invested $300 million in the port in 2016. This figure is smaller than the investments made by Maryland, Virginia, and the Port of New York and New Jersey, all of which invested billions of dollars in their ports.

Since 2016, PhilaPort’s container volumes increased 60 percent.

The port is expected to reach 740,000 containers this year, a 15 percent increase from 2020.

“Supply chain professionals have readjusted, reengineered and, although they are facing great difficulties, they are getting the job done,” Theobald said. “We at PhilaPort have learned and reacted as well.”

He cited the example of Holt, a private operator at PhilaPort’s Packer Avenue Marine Terminal. Holt addressed congestion and supply chain delays by extending its truck gate schedule, adding evening and weekend hours; leasing two satellite container yards; partnering with CSX Intermodal to improve operations at the CSX Greenwich; purchased additional trucks; providing two large pieces of container moving equipment and the labor to operate them to Intermodal Yard; and pausing all vessel operation for three days to delay the arrival of four vessels, allowing employees to work on terminal back-ups.

PhilaPort supports more than 10,000 direct and indirect jobs. This is expected to grow to 17,000.

The Delaware River port complex supports more than 30,000 jobs.