Stubborn supply chain woes are resisting Biden’s remedies

Starting Monday, the ports will bill carriers $100 per day for each container that remains on the dock for more than three days, if slated to move by rail, or nine days for truck-bound cargo. Those per-container fees will increase in $100 increments for each day of additional delay, the ports said.

27 Ottobre 2021 1:12 | Ultima modifica: 30 Gennaio 2023 10:36

A deepening freight logjam is defying President Biden’s hopes of restoring normal cargo movements, hampering the economic recovery and threatening consumers’ holiday shopping plans, reports David Lynch of The Washington Post.

Two weeks after Biden administration officials announced steps toward round-the-clock operations at the nation’s chief port complex, the backlog of ships anchored off the coast of Southern California has only grown larger. There is little sign that truckers are taking advantage of terminals’ extended hours to move containers off the crowded docks.

At APM Terminals’ Pier 400 in Long Beach, Calif., the largest such privately owned facility in North America, nearly half of the 2,000 available appointments for truckers went unused Friday, according to Maersk, which owns the site.

As complaints mount from affected shippers, administration officials are pressing ports, terminals and truckers to rethink their operations. On Monday, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach said they would impose new daily fees on cargo carriers in a bid to clear the docks and make room for containers stuck on ships offshore.