Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to fine shipping companies for staying idle too long!

LOS ANGELES, Kalifornia (PNN) - October 27, 2021 - Shipping companies at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will soon be fined if their containers stay in marine terminals for too long, officials announced on Monday.

Officials at San Pedro Bay Ports said in a statement that the fines are being imposed in an effort to “improve cargo movement amid congestion and record volume.”

Starting on November 1, the ports will charge shipping companies that fall into one of two categories: containers scheduled to move by truck and containers moving by rail.

In the case of containers scheduled to move by truck, shipping companies will be charged for every container that stays in marine terminals for nine days or longer. For those moving by rail, shipping companies will be charged if the container stays for three days or more.

Companies will incur a fine of $100 per container, which will increase in $100 increments per container per day. The fees collected will be re-invested into programs aimed at enhancing efficiency accelerating cargo velocity, and addressing congestion impacts throughout the San Pedro Bay, officials said.

“We must expedite the movement of cargo through the ports to work down the number of ships at anchor,” Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka said in a statement.

“Approximately 40% of the containers on our terminals today fall into the two categories. If we can clear this idling cargo, we’ll have much more space on our terminals to accept empties, handle exports, and improve fluidity for the wide range of cargo owners who utilize our ports,” said Seroka.

Roughly 77 ships are currently waiting outside docks in the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Kalifornia, carrying a staggering $24 billion worth of goods waiting to be offloaded.

The situation does not look set to improve in the immediate future as officials struggle to find a solution to the issue.

About 250,000 containers of goods are currently stacked up on the docks due to delayed pickups from chassis shortages and a lack of space in railyards and warehouses. This is causing dozens of ships to back up at anchor outside the ports.

The situation has resulted in shipping containers taking triple the time they usually take to get through major FPSA ports.