More than 60 cargo ships are parked at sea and waiting to come into San Pedro and Long Beach. The estimated wait time as of today was 12 days. /John Cádiz Klemack reports for the NBC4 News on Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021.
For more than 30 years, Octavio Guadarama's trucking career has seen its ups and downs. But this is the worst he's seen it.
"I think they don't have enough people to move everything," he said.
On the dock, complaints are with warehouses that receive the goods. At the warehouses, complaints are with the dock that unloads them. For Guadarama, it's the lack of trucks to get from point A to B.
"There are too many containers inside the terminal but there are no chassis to take those containers out," he said.
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More than 60 cargo ships are parked at sea and waiting to come into San Pedro and Long Beach. The estimated wait time as of today is 12 days. Wednesday President Joe Biden made the announcement that both LA and Long Beach would move to a 24-7 operation, calling it a potential game changer.
"I say potential because all of these goods won't move by themselves," he said.
But there's no timeline as to when that will begin or how. The White House is making the push to clear the supply chain from slowing the nation's economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
Gene Seroka, the executive director of the Port of Los Angeles.
"We have to push this cargo out as quickly as we can," he said.
Today port leaders say it'll take a commitment of more than just those on the dock. Private companies such as Walmart, Target, FedEx and UPS have agreed to up their plans to work overnight hours to move goods faster.
"You have the commitment of the Biden administration, the commitment of the hardworking women and men in the supply chain to do their very best," said John Porcari, who works the White House supply chain disruptions task force. "What we're doing together is to accelerate the velocity of the supply chain using the available capacity, which is at night."
But some along that chain worry there's still an equipment issue that has to be solved first. No trucks - no movement.
"If they don't have no chassis, it's going to be the same thing," Guadarama said.
