Auckland International Container Terminal management closed its operations at the Port of Auckland on Wednesday, with all other marine terminals except OICT shutting down truck access, bringing the port to a near standstill. Freight operators in Oakland, Calif., are bracing for a week-long strike by truckers. This week, truckers blocked operations at the third-busiest container port in the western United States, adding new disruptions to already strained U.S. supply chains.

Truckers have blocked vehicles from entering the container terminal at the Port of Oakland in what is understood to be the largest protest by truckers to date. In fact, the strike entered the second day. There were long queues outside the TRAPAC terminal. The OICT gate was closed for the whole day. The three marine terminals of the Port of Oakland have closed the truck channel, which actually stopped almost all business (except a small amount of business), and Protest against California’s AB5 bill.

The law will impose stricter restrictions on drivers classified as employees (rather than independent contractors), and an estimated 70,000 truck drivers will be subject to the bill who do not want to be employees or part of a union. Because it means truck drivers will lose their freedom to operate independently, making it more difficult to earn a living.

The Auckland protests, which were supposed to last several days, started on Monday, but have grown in size and destruction over time. Port officials had said on Tuesday that they expected the protests to end on Wednesday, while executives at freight companies in the area said protesters appeared ready to extend their protests and the strike would last a week. Gary Shergil, one of the protest organizers, told the Wall Street Journal that “the strike protests could go on for weeks or months.”

Port of Oakland truckers have effectively shut down freight operations at the port. There is no immediate word on when the protests will end, but supply chain problems are being exacerbated. This has led to congestion of cargo ships at the port and a buildup of cargo on the docks. Inflation soared. The protests come amid a peak import season for toy makers and other industries, and retailers are stocking up for the fall holiday and back-to-school.

The Port of Oakland is a major import gateway and agricultural export center for the United States, with more than 2,100 trucks passing through the terminal every day, importing a wide range of goods, including wine and meat from Australia, as well as furniture, clothing and electronics from China, Japan, and South Korea.

The strike added to congestion at the port, where port officials said 15 container ships were already waiting to berth. The biggest problem now is that the railway waiting time is about 11 days, and the congestion of railway transportation has caused the import containers to be shipped out of the port more slowly. At the beginning of July, nearly 9,000/28,000 containers were stranded for more than 9 days at the Port of Long Beach Terminal and Port of Los Angeles, respectively, and 11,000/about 17,000 containers were waiting to be loaded at the Railway Terminal. Trucking containers account for nearly 40 percent of all long-delayed containers at the port, and with the Port of Los Angeles currently at 90 percent of land capacity due to rail container buildup, any delays in truck pickups will only add to traffic congestion.

In addition, the East Coast and Gulf Coast ports were also crowded with waiting ships. In early July, 20 container ships were waiting for berths along the Gulf/New York and New Jersey coasts. According to statistics from June, the average waiting time for ships to enter the port has been 4.5 days, and the detention time of imported containers at New York and New Jersey terminals has been delayed to 8-14 days. 

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