The Port of Harbor City moved 14 percent more containers through the third quarter than it did a year ago, the port authority reported Thursday. It was the best quarter since 2019. It was also, according to the drayage companies that haul those containers inland, close to the worst.
“We have the freight. We don’t have the people,” said Angela Reyes, operations director at Coastal Drayage, which runs 60 trucks and currently has 11 parked for lack of drivers. Industry-wide, the regional association estimates 300 open positions.
Why the shortage
Three things, according to everyone we spoke with: an aging workforce, a licensing backlog at the state that stretches to four months, and wages that have not kept pace with warehouse work, which pays nearly the same without the hours.
The port authority has proposed a driver training partnership with the community college, with the first cohort in the spring. The association says it needs to be three times larger. Meanwhile, dwell time for containers at the terminal has nearly doubled, to 5.1 days.
