The number of container ships stuck off Southern California reached new records, as 111 are waiting around the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
That surpasses the previous record of 108 vessels reported on October 21, meaning the two ports remain clogged despite efforts to speed up the processing of containers.
To provide a solution, the White House announced a shift to a 24/7 schedule in October, as well as fines for leaving containers on the docks for several days.
This is because containers have been stacked up on the docks for weeks waiting to be unloaded, but a shortage of on-dock workers in addition to truck drivers has led to long delays in the process. These port jams do not allow ships to dock and drop new cargo.
To realize the size of the logjam, before the pandemic, the ports hadn’t seen a backlog greater than 17 ships, sources report. Now, the past few months, it is common to find around 100-plus ships waiting around these ports waiting to berth.
Aiming to declogg the situation, these two ports announced that they would begin fining shipping companies $100 a day for every container left on the docks. They will begin charging the companies on November 15.
Shipping firms now have three days to move containers if their next step is by rail, or nine days if the next step is by truck.
However, experts believe that these fees will do little to resolve the port jams.
