Thread by @typesfast

Tomorrow the new fees for not picking up your containers on time at the Ports of LA-Long Beach go into effect. The fees go up by $100 everyday, so by Day 30 charges reach $46,500 per container. 1/n

In my tweetstorm last week I called out all the reasons that it was so challenging for importers to find available chassis and get appointments to pick up containers at the port.

https://twitter.com/typesfast/status/1451673736877428742?s=20

2/n

This new 'emergency fee' punishes importers for a problem totally outside their control. Brands need the merchandise for the holidays. They would LOVE to come get those containers. 3/n

Due to the congestion, the average container now dwells at the port for 9 days, due to current congestion. Importers get the first 4-5 days for free, after which the fees kick in. The fees will add an average of $2,000 to shipping fees that are already at all-time highs.

The Port of Long Beach and Port of LA are owned by the city of Long Beach and the city of LA respectively. governments.

In the midst of the greatest crisis of the container shipping era the local governments in California have responded with a massive tax on the victims of that crisis, American businesses. Those businesses will need to pass through the costs to you, the consumers.

For context, a $2,000 average fee per container is about equal to the entire cost of ocean freight shipping before the pandemic. This tax is about 2% of the invoice value of the goods on the container.

Businesses of all sizes currently have more than $30B worth of merchandise sitting off the coast of Long Beach, trapped on more than 70 container ships waiting in the queue for their turn to unload.

Those businesses are at risk of missing the vital Christmas shopping season if they can't get the containers off those ships and into their shelves and e-commerce fulfillment centers.

They are already paying up to $20,000 to get their containers shipped from Asia to the U.S. Adding these fees may be the straw that breaks the camels back for many companies that don't have the margin structure or pricing power to absorb this tax.

.@LongBeachMayor and @MayorOfLA If you're still listening, please call on the Port Authority to to eliminate these fees.

This is an absurd abuse of monopoly power by your local governments, a new tax that you are imposing on every business that uses your port, which is all of them. And through them, on every consumer who buys goods that come through your port, which is all of us.