Following announcements of levies at Los Angeles and Long Beach, the practice is now coming into play at Tacoma, with one forwarder expecting carriers to pass on charges and customers will refuse to pay them – leaving forwarders between a rock and a hard place.
The port’s Husky terminal will not release containers that have been on the premises for more than 15 days until importers pay a one-time charge of $315. And from 15 November, customers of the Washington United Terminal face a long-term dwell fee of $310 for containers at the terminal for more than 15 days.
These are one-off charges on top of late fees of $230 a day that kick in once a container has been at a terminal more than four days.
Tacoma has been struggling with worsening congestion – on Friday more than 15 ships were waiting for berth space, and in its notice to customers about the new charge, Husky Terminal pointed out that dwell time had grown exponentially in recent months.
The Northwest Seaport Alliance (comprising the ports of Tacoma and Washington) has opened three temporary container storage yards near docks this year, which has brought some relief, but not enough to halt the worsening congestion.