Backlogs at the nation's largest ports hit a new record in October.
The number of ships waiting to dock at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has continued to break records this year, but unloaded shipping containers are causing historic traffic jams. The amount of time the containers are waiting to be picked up by trucks lingered in the port terminals climbed to an average of 7.64 days last month according to data from the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association.
In September, the average amount of time for unloaded containers at the ports was under six days. According to the statement, over half of the containers at the ports waited in the terminals for over five days.
The average dwell time for containers traveling by railroad improved in October from an average of 5.5 days the previous month to 3.9 days. The railroads were turned into chokepoints due to the oversupply of containers. The movement of goods through rails has improved since then.
Truck drivers are having a harder time picking up goods from the ports because of a shortage of workers and warehouses. It is more difficult for the ports to unload incoming cargo ships because there is often no space to unload the goods.
The manager of government affairs at PMSA said that the terminal is not designed to be a long-term storage facility.
The ports announced plans to begin charging carriers $100 per day for each container that remained at the ports for at least six to nine days. Over 60,000 shipping containers lingered at the ports for over a week after the fines were announced.
The new fines were put off for the third time on Monday because the container congestion had been cleared.
