Wait Times Fall at So. Calif. Ports

Container pick-up turn times for drayage operators at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are improving due to additional gate openings, increased staff and flex lunch hour shifts, motor carriers and terminal operators said Monday. 

Bruce Wargo, president and chief executive officer of PierPass, told Port of Long Beach harbor commissioners that 12 of 13 terminals operating at the two ports have returned to near pre-recession staffing levels, adding five extra gates a week, hiring additional workers and no longer closing terminal gates for lunch.

However, terminals at the two ports are doing 32,000 truck gate moves a day, still below the 42,000 average daily moves in 2008, Wargo said.

“We’ve still got a ways to go to catch up, but essentially we’re getting back to normal,” Wargo said.

Officials at both ports said they are seeing the lines outside the terminals moving faster.

“I’m very pleased to say that we have made a lot of progress,” said J. Christopher Lytle, deputy executive director of the Port of Long Beach.