COVID-19 hit the entire shipping industry. Someone with a unique perspective on what’s currently happening to the storage industry is Mark DePasquale, the CEO of the National Portable Storage Association.
As his members range from portable storage companies to leasing companies and service providers, Mark knows how companies remain competitive despite blank sailings and high shipping rates. Listen to our interview to find out why Mark thinks we are on the long road to recovery in the industry.
National Portable Storage Association (NPSA) is the leading trade association for companies offering secure, portable storage containers, portable or mobile storage trailers, portable or mobile offices, portable or mobile storage units and the industry that surrounds us. Before Mark joined the NPSA as their CEO in February a VP at Florens Asset Management, hence his broad experience on the container logistics industry.
Before fighting COVID-19, Mark already had to fight another topic: the container tariffs as a consequence of the trade war between the US and China. According to Mark, it is not a huge issue at the moment anymore mostly due to Marks and others fight as the representative of an entire industry who removed containers from all tranches of tariffs for now.
As we met specifically to talk about the impact COVID-19 has on the portable storage industry and how that effects container owners such as liners or leasing companies, we covered the following topics in our conversation:
- The impact of COVID-19 on the NPSA and its members
- The feedback Mark gets from his members
- The biggest challenges for container owners
- How good companies adapt to COVID-19
- Why COVID-19 could be the big breakthrough for digital solutions
If you have questions, feel free to reach out to us or Mark directly and leave a comment below. If you prefer listening to the interview while working on your emails, here’s the interview on Soundcloud:
