Forward Progress on Addressing the Shipping Crisis?
Last week, the full Senate approved the Senate version of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act (OSRA) by voice vote. The House also approved OSRA for a third time. The House and the Senate must now reconcile the differences between the two versions of the TGA-supported legislation, which we hope will happen quickly. On April 4, President Biden announced major steps forward in addressing the ongoing trucker shortage, claiming significant increases in new truckers and new commercial truck licenses and a dramatic increase in new trucker apprenticeship programs. On April 1, the ports of LA/Long Beach began collecting new fees of $10/TEU on all loaded import and export cargo containers hauled by drayage trucks. The stated purpose of the new fee is to support the Clean Truck Fund (CTF) to help fund and incentivize the changeover to cleaner trucks and accelerate the development of zero-emissions technology to achieve zero-emissions drayage trucking by 2035. And, on April 1, the Ports of LA/Long Beach again delayed, for the 19th week straight, the so-called “super demurrage fee” on long-standing import containers at docks until at least April 8.