‘Container Dwell Fee’ Again on Hold to Dec. 13

SAN PEDRO—The Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach announced Dec. 6, that consideration of the “Container Dwell Fee” would be held off another week, until Dec. 13.

Since the fee was announced on Oct. 25, the twin ports have seen a combined decline of 37% in aging cargo on the docks. The executive directors of both ports will reassess fee implementation after another week of monitoring data.

Under the temporary policy approved Oct. 29 by the Harbor Commissions of both ports, ocean carriers can be charged for each import container that falls into one of two categories: In the case of containers scheduled to move by truck, ocean carriers could be charged for every container dwelling nine days or more. For containers moving by rail, ocean carriers could be charged if a container has dwelled for six days or more. No date has been set to start the count with respect to container dwell time.

The ports plan to charge ocean carriers in these two categories $100 per container, increasing in $100 increments per container per day until the container leaves the terminal.