Commentary: Blunt talk blowback

   Kevin Lynskey, the deputy director at PortMiami, learned a hard lesson about trying to be funny in the wrong setting and being too honest at the recent Intermodal Association of North America conference in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
   The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers just finished dredging Miami’s harbor to 50 feet so big ships with goods from Asia can come there through the new set of wide locks in the Panama Canal. The port authority has also invested millions of dollars in big ship cranes and on-dock rail. Asked about the canal’s impact on the port, Lynskey quipped, “Not a whole lot. We’re kind of a cruise port. We’re not into the cargo business.”
   It was supposed to be a joke—everyone knows the opposite is true. But an industry conference probably wasn’t the best forum to do his Jimmy Kimmel impression.
   Some customers and business partners in the audience didn’t appreciate it either when he said Miami has “primitive” landside infrastructure and will underperform when it comes to handling cargo surges from big vessels.
   The main point he was making is that Miami, like other ports on the East Coast, is working to fix the problems with container stacking, storage and truck transfers. It’s par for the course. Anytime there are large volume increases, ports have to adjust by tailoring infrastructure and processes to the new realities.
   Many big ports on both coasts are going through the same growing pains as big vessels arrive that don’t require going through the Panama Canal.
   Lynskey’s portrayal of Miami’s capabilities was refreshingly accurate. But it didn’t jive with the marketing message that PortMiami is trying to convey that it is “big-ship ready.”
   His mistake was he spoke the truth.

This commentary was published in the November 2015 issue of American Shipper.