As was widely anticipated, trucking delays have been mounting in recent weeks in the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach, the nation’s busiest port and gateway to Asia. The delays are largely the result of a scramble to offload vessels and get freight out of the harbor in advance of next week’s July 1st deadline for a West Coast Longshoreman’s strike.

In some cases, truckers are reported to be waiting in line for up to 6 hours to retrieve containers, crippling productivity and driving up waiting charges for shippers. In some cases, steamship lines have begun to transfer containers to off-site yards for pickup to relieve the space and manpower crunch.

Adding to the backlog, the largest container ship to ever dock at the Port of Los Angeles, the AP Moeller, arrived in port last week carrying 13,000 twenty foot containers. The vessel, owned by COSCO Lines, is one of a new breed of super-sized ships carrying twice the capacity of standard container ships. It consequently takes twice as long to unload.

For a more in depth discussion of this subject and a more details on labor negotiations, please refer to an article recently appearing in California Apparel News here.