The impact of COVID-19 on global shipping and logistics has been non-stop since early 2020. The personal electric vehicle industry has been directly in the crosshairs since almost all products (especially batteries) are produced overseas and shipped to the United States or Europe before getting to the end user. From delayed shipments to container shortages, it has made us all miss the good ol' days when freight wasn't frightening. Aside from a good Halloween pun, we wanted to share our perspective on the matter.
At first, the pandemic closed down factories and halted production. Pressure creates diamonds right? Well, at ShredLights that is exactly what happened. Our operations team made up of Erica, Kyle and Andrew navigated the delays and made adjustments to ensure we kept lights in stock. In fact, they helped keep all SKUs in stock for nearly the entire year, which was a rare highlight of 2020.
In early 2021, we adapted our supply chain to anticipate the new set of challenges that the pandemic presented us and have kept all products in stock through August. We meticulously planned the SL-300 and SL-R1 launch in July and managed to ship all orders out within 7 days of the launch (props to Andrew's speedy hands).
Now, in the fall of 2021 we made it to the final boss (we hope) of the pandemic supply chain which is the jam at the port of Long Beach in California. If you haven't heard, there is a record number (134) of ships at the port. As of September 17th, 74 of those ships are at anchor standing by until the port of Long Beach or Los Angeles can receive them.
