The ever-increasing amount of product being imported into the US is starting to stack up – literally. In the city of Long Beach California, Governor Gavin Newsome made an executive order to alleviate the impacts on the system by temporarily waiving enforcement of current shipping container stacking and height limits.
Normally, only two are allowed to stack atop each other in the yard, but with massive gridlock gripping the ports, Long Beach has begun to routinely set up stacks up to six containers high. As of now, warehouses and container yards will be allowed to stack up to four containers high in lieu of the normal two. Some can stack up to five containers high as long as they are within the approval limits of the local fire departments. The new rules are only in effect for 90 days, which will allow them to continue this high-stakes stacking until the holiday season is over.
The zoning restrictions were originally added to the city code to minimize the view of industrial equipment in surrounding neighborhoods, but the temporary rule change only applies to properties that are currently zoned to store containers. The new waiver of the rule change by Gov. Newsome means that the current enforcement of shipping container stacking and height limits are being loosened to alleviate impacts on the system.
The officials in Long Beach will assess the effectiveness of the congestion-mitigation solution and any community impacts that occur in the following weeks. As of Friday, October 22, there were 79 vessels waiting for berth at Southern California ports. The dwell times have ballooned to near six days despite Los Angeles setting a record for the most containers processed in September and Long Beach having its second-busiest September ever.
With the Port of Long Beach (at the urging of the White House) beginning a 24/7 operation at one of its marine terminals, they are making efforts to increase productivity. The truckers, unfortunately, have had very few take advantage of the extra gate hours for operational and economic reasons. The backlog is also getting worse because containers have few places to go because warehouses are overwhelmed and have no extra storage spots to receive loads from the ports.
Agriculture Transportation Coalition Executive Director Peter Friedmann offered several recommendations for aiding the breakdown in the ocean supply chain by waiving local zoning and land-use restrictions to provide more space for storing the containers.
Others, namely Carlo DeAtouguia, CEO of Western Overseas Corp., an international logistics company based in Cypress, California, complains this is just a Band-aid solution and will not fix the root cause of the problem. And that stacking them so high could make it more difficult to dig them out for customers and lead to long delays just like the Union Pacific railroad recently experienced at its giant intermodal rail terminal in Joliet, Illinois.
In the end, everyone is doing everything they can to ease the congestion and stacking issues and Sobel is making headway in standing apart from the crowd. When partnering with Sobel they simplify the complexity of the international shipping process through world-class, turnkey logistics solutions. Sobel facilitates and simplifies the customs process, takes care of the details with freight forwarding, and is an industry pioneer in e-commerce clearance and nationwide distribution. Their team ensures that your cargo passes through border clearances promptly and accurately, avoiding fines, penalties, and delivery delays. Sobel is equipped to find the most convenient and cost-effective solutions to fit your needs. Sobel can even provide domestic trucking services to support your primary business location operations. Overall, Sobel has it covered with all that they offer and more. While the world is producing more problems, Sobel is providing a solution.
