The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, along with supporting distribution facilities and infrastructure in the area, are suffering from severe congestion. What’s the cause — and the solution?

The Southern California freight transportation scene is in a state of virtual gridlock. The situation began taking shape around the middle of 2020, with problems including vessel bunching at the ports, jammed marine terminals and local distribution facilities, long lines of trucks waiting to pick up containers, a scarcity of chassis, and shortage of dockside labor. Things aren’t expected to improve until May or June, and might even persist until late this year. On this episode, we get an explanation of the crisis from Jon DeCesare, a Southern California transportation veteran and president of World Class Logistics Consulting, Inc. He lays out the pain points, and offers some recommendations on how to alleviate them, both for the short and long term. Hosted by Bob Bowman, Editor-in-Chief of SupplyChainBrain.

Show notes:

A “stakeholders’ letter” to California Governor Gavin Newsom and the state legislature, urging action on the congestion problem.