Recently published in the Journal of Commerce:
As congestion mounts in Southern California, the Port of Long Beach is taking immediate actions to target hot spots in the harbor area and to share information on chassis availability with all port stakeholders.
“We’re in a crisis mode right now,” Chief Executive Jon Slangerup said in an interview Tuesday.
The neighboring ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles have struggled much of the year with chassis dislocations, rail service delays, unusually long truck turn times and container terminals that are pushing their storage capacities to the brink. However, rather than seeing the congestion dissipate, it continues to get worse.
The ports have applied to the Federal Maritime Commission for permission to discuss these problems and develop joint solutions, but until that permission is granted, they must operate on parallel tracks.Like trucking and terminal operator executives, Slangerup said a convergence of factors has contributed to the port’s worst congestion problems in years, but the main culprit is the chaos that has resulted since shipping lines in Southern California stopped providing chassis to their customers. “The root cause is chassis,” he said.
The port last week established a Chassis Relief Team that held its first meeting with Direct ChassisLink, cargo interests, terminal operators and truckers. DCLI, one of the three major chassis leasing companies in the harbor, agreed to take the lead in working with the other providers to publish regular updates on chassis positioning throughout the port complex.
Each sector of the transportation industry is suffering from and contributing to the congestion problem.