L.A., Long Beach Ports’ Container Dwell Fee Start Date Delayed to July 1

Stacked containers at a San Pedro Bay port complex container terminal. Photo: Chris Valle Photography.

Leaders at the Los Angeles and Long Beach seaports have again decided to move the start date of the Container Dwell Fee an additional week, to July 1, it was announced June 24.

Officials decided not to implement the fee, which charges ocean carriers for every import that stays at terminals for nine or more days, after seeing that the amount of older cargo has fallen by 31% at both ports since announcing the fee Oct. 25.

The fee calls for ocean carriers to be billed $100 for every import that stays past its allotted time, rising in $100 increments per day per container until it departs the docks.

The fee was created with the help of the Biden Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation and supply chain stakeholders to combat the increasing amounts of containers congesting the nation’s two busiest seaports.

Leaders from both ports have said they plan to reassess implementing the fee after it reviews the dwell data.

Meanwhile, the harbor commissioners that govern both ports recently agreed to continue the fee policy through July 28.

By Pacific Maritime Magazine