What does cargo at the ports tell us about the 2020 holiday season?

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A quiet Monday morning rush hour commute through Hoboken Transit Terminal, as workers are asked to stay home during the coronavirus pandemic.

NorthJersey.com

While the shift to a stay-at-home lifestyle — from working to laundry to making coffee — has devastated practically every corner of the transportation industry, your new online shopping addiction has helped one bounce back.

New York-New Jersey port cargo volumes.

In August and September, the number of goods coming off ships and on to trucks or trains to be delivered to your doorstep exceeded 2019 numbers, the first time port cargo volumes have seen a year-over-year uptick this year, according to data from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

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The reasons? Preparation for the holiday season, and retailers stocking up on inventory in anticipation of the next wave of coronavirus, explained Sam Ruda, port director, and Bethann Rooney, deputy port director.

You can look to the goods coming through the ports for hints about the gifts you may be unwrapping this year: 

  • Washer and dryer volumes coming through the Port Authority are up 2,600%
  • Kitchen furniture is up 121%
  • Bedding is up 18%
  • Wooden furniture and seats with upholstery is up 44%
  • Coffee pots are up 163%
  • Electronics and computers went up 78%
  • Liqueurs are up 41%

Rooney said the dramatic increase in washer-dryer machines, which were among the appliances Home Depot and Lowes couldn’t restock fast enough earlier this year, are the corporate workers in Manhattan or Jersey City that didn’t have them and dropped laundry at laundromats before work. Now, those people are working from home and can fit in a laundry load of leisure wear in between Zoom meetings.

“Instead of people going on vacations, they’re working on redoing their family rooms and redoing kitchens,” Rooney said. “People are not going to work so the dry cleaning bills are down, but you need the washers and dryers.”

Transportation hit hard by pandemic

The ports were the first to seedips in volume from the coronavirus back in December 2019 and continuing for the next seven months as the virus first spread through China and Europe where a lot of ships originate. The region’s bridge, tunnel, airport and train traffic didn’t start to significantly decline until April.

“There definitely was a drop in volume and the ocean carriers responded with taking capacity out of the system, but it rebounded quite rapidly,” Ruda said.

He added that the home economy and products that come with it “is not a new trend, but I do think that COVID has accelerated what we were already seeing in terms of an increase in e-commerce.”

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It didn’t hurt that the Port Authority made multi-billion dollar investments in recent years so that it could handle larger ships and expand its rail freight network that allows cargo-carrying containers to be loaded directly onto trains headed to the Midwest and beyond.

Before coronavirus, the ports — and just about every other facet of the Port Authority’s businesses in airports, trains, bus terminals, bridges and tunnels — were seeing record-setting growth. Officials hoped to continue that trend with its ambitious $37 billion 10-year capital plan.

Now, the bi-state agency is bracing for widespread cuts, including to its capital program, layoffs, and other belt-tightening measures.

Even with the ports rebounding, Executive Director Rick Cotton said it won’t be enough to fill the gaping revenue holes as the transportation of people continues to lag as much as 78% below 2019 passenger numbers when it comes to PATH and airport traffic.

In 2020, money coming in from the port made up 5.7% of overall revenues. Fares from tunnels, bridges and PATH riders, along with money made at airports accounted for nearly 88% of the Port Authority’s total revenue.

“What is hugely negatively impacting the airports and the public transportation is people’s concern about health and for that, one needs a vaccine to be widely distributed and needs people to regain confidence that travel is safe to resume,” Cotton said.

“We continue to make the two overarching points, which is first we want to continue moving toward 21st Century infrastructure at all of our facilities, and second in this economic crisis that has been brought on by COVID we want to be part of a stronger economic recovery,” Cotton said.

Colleen Wilson covers the Port Authority and NJ Transit for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to her work covering the region’s transportation systems and how they affect your commute, please subscribe or activate your digital account today. 

Email: [email protected] 

Twitter: @colleenallreds 

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