Whether container rates are up or down, chances are you’d like to pay less to import containers. Fortunately, there’s a straightforward way to reduce shipping costs when shipping into the Ports of L.A. and Long Beach. In this article, we’ll discuss the practice of importing products using higher shipping container weights and making use of the Overweight Corridor.
After 13 long months of talks and negotiations, there is finally a new West Coast port labor contract. Logisticians far and wide have been able to breathe a sigh of relief as one of their most significant supply chain hurdles is removed.
So, what’s next?
Around this time last year, every article about the West Coast supply chain painted a dire picture. There was an armada of ships waiting to enter the Ports of L.A. and Long Beach; there was no warehouse space to be had; and trucking capacity was scarce. Because of these and other factors, logisticians began to look seriously at non-West Coast options for their freight and distribution.
A year later, however, the news is changing. And for the better.
The eyes of concerned logisticians remain focused on the ongoing West Coast port contract negotiations between the longshoremen’s union and the region’s shipping ports. The longshoremen have been without a contract since July 2022 and the expectation was that an agreement would be reached by the time the contract expired.
Container ship logjams at US ports are (unfortunately) back in a big way. This time, however, the congestion is spread out across the US – especially the East and Gulf Coasts – instead of being concentrated on the West Coast.
“Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…” This famous tagline for Jaws 2 may well apply to importers into West Coast US ports these days. These shippers are still contending with port congestion and delays, while also getting ready to navigate a new challenge of possible slowdowns due to contract negotiations at West Coast ports.
As we approach the holiday season, the supply chain disruptions that have plagued most of the world for the better part of two years have gone from industry news to front-page news. And everybody has the same question: how are we going to get the supply chain back on track? From what we know and see as a third-party logistics provider, the solutions won’t happen overnight, but they may be far-reaching enough to prevent a crisis like this from happening again in the future.
When shipping freight into California, or anywhere in the U.S. for that matter, you may feel that you’re leaping over one hurdle after another to deliver your goods to market. The current California port congestion crisis is one of the biggest hurdles right now. In this article, we’ll examine why the current freight system congestion is so severe, and why it’s lasted so long.
The current driver shortage affects every mode of trucking, port drayage included. What you may not realize, however, is that this shortage of drayage drivers is not new – it didn’t begin with COVID-19 or even in the years leading up to the pandemic. In this article, we’ll examine the reasons for the truck driver shortage among drayage drivers and tell you why your transportation provider’s culture is key to sourcing the capacity you need.
As we examined in our recent blog post on port congestion, ports across the U.S. – most notably the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach – are experiencing severe backups due to increased import activity after the initial pandemic-related slowdown of 2020. The effects of these backups continue to be felt throughout the supply chains of importers. In this article, we focus on one piece of this port congestion puzzle: the West Coast chassis pools, specifically those at the Ports of LA and Long Beach.
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