Port of Long Beach gives shippers more “free time” to ease congestion concerns

Southern California shippers are getting a break on container dwell expenses for the next ten days as the Port of Long Beach announced that it had added an extra three days to the time that overseas import containers can remain on the docks without charge.

According to spokesmen, this was done in order to grant some relief to cargo owners as the supply chain works to eliminate cargo delivery delays.

Effective through Oct. 31, the “free” time been extended from four to seven business days. Cargo owners typically work to have their imported cargo containers picked up within free time or face “demurrage” or storage fees. The port cannot waive demurrage retroactively.

A number of factors have combined to back up cargo at the local port complex in recent weeks: an upswing in cargo shipments arriving for the holiday shopping season; the arrival of larger ships that can carry 50 percent more cargo and a shortage of truck chassis to haul containers.

As reported in LM, The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners has since directed port staff to develop plans for purchasing and providing thousands of truck chassis for congestion relief during peak periods.

As additional cargo flows through the Long Beach, helping to sustain jobs both locally and throughout the country, the port is doing what it can to help terminal operators ease bottlenecks.

“The terminal congestion is very unfortunate, and a truly exceptional occurrence, so I am using my authority to waive demurrage fees through the end of the month,” said Jon Slangerup, Port of Long Beach Chief Executive.

Althouigh PierPass, Inc. recently announced that its OffPeak program has reached a major milestone – diverting its 30 millionth truck trip from weekday, daytime traffic in Los Angeles and Long Beach since the program began in July 2005 – Slangerup said there’s room for improvement.

“What we have now is version one,” he said. “We need version 2.0.”