I caught a glancing blow from this. My 10-day trans-atlantic shipment was quoted February 24, initiated March 15 and available to me May 5. I hear it's gotten substantially worse. When I was there, I was told it would be 15 minutes to pick up my shipment, which was an 800lb palleted crate roughly the size of a dishwasher. We waited half an hour, went and got lunch, came back, and then waited another 90 minutes. The problem discussed in the article is, in fact, the challenge of getting in and out of port facilities. The forklift drivers there told me that they were making approximately $3 an hour less than if they stayed home and collected unemployment, which is one reason they were so understaffed. Meanwhile, this was at an intermodal depot - the thing made it off the boat in Toronto March 26, and then took five weeks to get to the point where I could pick it up. So that's my experience. At least I have some. Seems to me that you're favoring what you read on YCombinator over a first-person account.