SIMIC

The city manager said the temporary zoning rules to last for 90 days, will allow stacks of four containers high, abandoning the long-standing limit of two.

The note posted online cited a "a national emergency related to the supply and distribution of imported goods arriving in our nations ports."

Long Beach and Los Angeles are struggling to handle record volumes of inbound cargo amid shortages of truck drivers and equipment like trailers needed to haul containers from the docks to inland warehouses, rail hubs and distribution centres.

The time a container stays on a marine terminal between unloading from a ship and removal by a truck rose to a record 5.94 days in September. Before the pandemic, the so-called dwell time was usually under three days, according to the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association.