US companies also would be motivated to further automation in their operations. It's cheaper, doesn't need lunch breaks, or vacations, and can work 24/7. It is -unfortunately for a lot people- inevitable.

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If you think about how modern containerized shipping works, it's absolutely inevitable.

Once the containers are physically standardized not only in dimension but their "handles" for being picked by cranes and lashed together for stability aboard ship, the focus shifts to WHAT is in each container, how much it weighs and where it should be positioned aboard, not only for weight distribution but for optimization of removal at various ports of call from A to Z. If a ship is going to sail from A to B to C to D before reaching final port E, you don't want to arbitrarily load containers destined for location B at the bottom of the pile, requiring everything atop them to be temporarily removed then replaced on the ship. You want cargo loaded in E, D, C, B order from bottom to top.

All of that planning is computerized from the moment a shipper loads cargo in a container, seals the container and calls for an inter-modal transport company to pick it up at the factory and take it to the outgoing port. If all of that work has been planned on computer, that plan has to be followed to the letter to ensure the ship is loaded safely. If every container is uniquely identifiable from factory to destination and all of the loading and unloading can be mapped to a three dimensional grid 100 feet high (enough to stack 10 containers) and four square miles in area down to the inch, there's not much point in having some of that labor done by hand where human error could make a mistake. The work that remains involves tasks computers cannot do... Driving cars on/off transport ships. Handling bulky shipments that don't fit in containers such as diesel generators, construction equipment, etc. Clearing out bulk cargo holds between loads, maintaining machinery on board and at the port, etc.


WTH