Officials in Southern California should consider declaring a state of emergency to help ease clogged ports in the area, a state trucking boss said.
In an interview with Fox News, Shawn Yadon, CEO of the California Trucking Association, said every stakeholder in the supply chain needed to act to fix the crisis – from shipping, trucking, and rail to warehousing. This echoed the sentiments of other experts.
On Monday, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach hit a fresh record of 100 vessels floating off the coast waiting to dock and unload, according to data from the Marine Exchange.
Labor shortages along the supply chain, including trucking, had contributed to a “perfect storm” hitting ports, Yadon said, per Fox Business.
“I think we are in a situation in California where a state of emergency related to the ports is certainly something that should be considered,” he said.
Of the 100 ships waiting Monday, 97 were container ships, carrying cargo that could potentially miss the holiday shopping season.
Before the pandemic, the ports’ highest record had been 17 ships waiting to anchor, Kip Louttit, the head of the Marine Exchange told Insider this week.
Containers that have been stacked up on the docks for weeks are waiting to be unloaded, but a shortage of on-dock workers and truck drivers is leading to long delays in this process.
News of this record came days after the White House announced that the LA port would be following in the footsteps of its Long Beach neighbor and shifting to a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week schedule.
This week, the head of the American Trucking Associations told CNN that the country was currently lacking 80,000 truck drivers, a new record.
