The shipping crisis is not going away anytime soon as the line of ships at anchor continues to grow off the coast of California, causing a knock-on ripple effect of delays and fees throughout the supply chain.

In addition to the congestion, the Port of Los Angeles is seeing an unprecedented volume of imports without an increase in equipment resources. The lack of chassis is causing further transportation delays.

The congestion and equipment shortages have also disrupted trucking operations as turn times for trucks — the time to drop off and pick up a container within the terminal — have sharply increased. This is impacting the overall productivity at the ports. Inundated truckers cannot keep up with the increased volume and endless congestion due to these unavoidable circumstances.

Adding to the congestion problem, equipment shortages and trucker productivity downturn is the return empty issue, which has reached a bit of a crescendo. The Port of Long Beach has essentially reached their capacity to accept empties. This has caused backlogs at trucker yards and external shared yards. In many cases, steamship lines are requiring dual transactions to return empties, further degrading efficiency. As a result of this empty return problem, periodically carriers must devote most of their resources to returning empties to free up yard space, delaying their normal operations.

All these issues lead to shippers facing detention and demurrage surcharges by ocean carriers and marine terminals. Unfortunately, these issues are completely out of our control.

Worldwide Logistics Group will continue to pass along updates regarding the issues mounting at the LA piers with our drayage/delivery partners.