Port of Long Beach news release:

In its ongoing efforts to provide congestion relief to customers and stakeholders, the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners, at its Oct. 13 weekly meeting, directed Port of Long Beach staff to develop plans for purchasing and providing thousands of truck chassis for congestion relief during peak periods.

“We’ve been facilitating discussions about chassis issues for some time,” said Port of Long Beach Chief Executive Jon Slangerup. “Working with the Harbor Commission’s port efficiency subcommittee, we determined that the root cause of the current congestion crisis is the lack of chassis to support peak-level volumes – and no one else was stepping up to address this critical problem.”

The Board of Harbor Commissioners has established a subcommittee chaired by Commission Vice President Rich Dines, working with Commissioner Lori Ann Farrell, to focus on port efficiency.

At the Oct. 13 meeting, Port staff was directed by the full Harbor Commission at the urging of Slangerup to come up with a proposal within 30 days to obtain additional chassis. If needed, the Port would prepare to establish an organization to purchase, service and manage a pool of supplemental chassis to provide relief whenever there is a shortage of privately owned chassis.

One of the key issues identified by the Harbor Commission subcommittee and Port staff is a mismatch between supply and demand. Some privately operated terminals have an adequate supply of chassis while others are critically short. This imbalance is causing severe congestion at some terminals, particularly during peak shipping periods.

“This current peak congestion crisis is something that was avoidable,” said Slangerup, “and we are taking the necessary steps to prevent any such problems from happening again.”