In a recent press release published Monday, the combined ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach announced that they will begin assessing a surcharge to ocean carriers for import containers that dwell on marine terminals with the stated intention “to improve cargo movement amid congestion and record volume”.
Under this new policy, both ports will charge ocean carriers for each container that falls into one of two categories:
- For all containers scheduled to move by truck, ocean carriers will be charged for every container dwelling nine days or more.
- For all containers moving by rail, ocean carriers will be charged if the container has dwelled for six days or more.
Effective November 1st, the ports will charge ocean carriers with cargo in those two categories $100 per container, increasing in $100 increments per container per day (i.e., $200 for day 2, $300 for day 3 and so on).
Preliminary indication from many ocean carriers is that this “Emergency Fee” surcharge will be passed through onto cargo owners. Official notifications including methods of when and how the carriers will assess and charge these fees have yet to be provided. We will continue to keep you informed of all new updates as this issue develops.