product at risk of total loss, including 68 million-pounds of milk powder and 10 million-pounds of butter. simon and his partners aren t alone. according to an industry group u.s. dairy has lost over a billion dollars because of the recent shipping slowdowns. so shipping will slow down but your cows can t slow down their milk production? these cows don t stop. during the entire pandemic that has been the problem we can t just turn off the valve. reporter: so you saw end to end transit times go from 43 days in 2019 to 78 days last month? that is right, douglas. the whole system is not coping with the current volumes. reporter: lee is from the fredos group, a online cargo booking platform which also tracks shipping trends. he says delays have been caused by a shortage in truck chassis, a lock of truck drivers and limited space at storage
you said end-to-end transit times go from 43 days in 2019 to 78 days last month. that s right. the whole system is not coping with the volumes. an online cargo booking platform that tracks shipping trends. he says delays have been caused by a shortage in truck chassis, a lack of truck drivers, and limited space at storage facilities. a perfect storm of problems clogging west coast ports. you are also seeing prices soar ten times what they were two years ago. that s right. the price in 2019 was 1,300 to ship a container from china to the u.s. west coast. that reached as high as 20,000 this year. last month president biden mandated ports stay open 24 hours a day to ease the backlog. but this man doesn t see things
2020 was in many ways the year of ecommerce with more people logging on to shop for both essential and non-essential items. Over the holiday season, retailers saw a strong surge in digital shopping, both for delivery-to-home and for pick-up in stores, However, not all was merry and bright - shipping, for many, proved to be a lowlight for the year. We asked a digital expert how brands can rebound.