APUS ePress: Transportation and Logistics Management

James A. Braveboy
Program: Transportation and Logistics Management: Capstone-Thesis: Master of Arts (MA)
Awarded: November 2015
Capstone Instructor: Dr. Keith Wade
Abstract: Seaport congestion, or the back-up of cargo ships in ports worldwide, is a growing phenomenon in light of the globalization of the container shipping industry. Cargo ships filled with merchandise sit in ports for many weeks, unable to unload, destabilizing economies that depend on maritime import/export in both the developed and developing world. Given the development of post-Panamax, or super-sized, liners, along with alternate sea routes such as the Northern Sea Route and the newly-widened Panama Canal, shipping should be faster and easier than ever; this is however not the case, and this thesis explores several theories as to why. Using the U.S. West Coast as a jumping off point, this thesis contends that that a major source of friction and contribution to the problem of massive seaport congestion worldwide is the dissonance between globalized worldwide shipping networks that operate on sea, and the locally-based, unionized, and heterogeneous dock workers they encounter in port.