According to the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, threats of penalty fees are just as effective as the fees themselves. The container dwell fee announced by the White House late in October 2021 declared that ports would be implementing a fee of $100 per each day extra at berth. A fee that was, and still is, held in contempt by carriers who reason that it would punish them for situations outside of their control. Since its announcement, the fees have been pushed back every week leading up to present day. “There are many measures we have had to put in place, but this one, this undoubtedly has had a resounding effect,” said Gene Seroka, the Port of Los Angeles executive director. Seroka noted that the number of terminals sitting at port longer than nine days has significantly dropped since last October. Stating that they’ve gone from an average of 95,000 boxes to approximately 40,000 as of last week. An article published by The Wall Street Journal reports further on the threat of penalties keeping cargo moving through ocean freight.
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