West Coast Port Update

While the West Coast ports are not in the news on a daily basis anymore, congestion issues and truck power remain a problem in both LA/Long Beach and Oakland. Our connections on the ground in the West Coast report that terminals at the Port of Oakland are handling throughput better than in past months. Even so, some terminals are more congested than others, and while street wait times may be light, we are still getting complaints from truckers of no appointments and long delays. We have specific data on each terminal should you want more detail. Please also note that construction is underway at the Ben E. Nutter terminal, which may affect traffic and potentially cause delays for the next several weeks.

In LA/Long Beach there continue to be sporadic issues. Early in October, there were ILWU stop work meetings, full shift or early closures, closed areas, empty return restrictions, restricted dual-only or single-only transactions allowed, and almost all terminals experience chassis shortages. Not all terminals are providing 5 PierPass gates, despite the fact that this is peak season. Limiting PierPass gates make the empty/load match more challenging for truckers. From April through September, the average turn times have been approximately 98 minutes across all terminals, an improvement from the period of labor disruption, but still not where they should be. Should you want specific information on any terminal, please let us know.

If you have any questions about the movement of your cargo in or out of the port, please feel free to contact us.