Port Vancouver says trucks not coming off-hours to clear backlog
Officials at Port Vancouver said Thursday that a backlog of container cargo resulting from a month-long trucker strike is not being cleared, despite terminals operators' willingness to stay open at night and on Saturday.
According to reports from the terminal operators, the port said more than 1,000 reservations were booked at Deltaport last Saturday, but only 400 transactions were completed. Similarly low Saturday volumes were also reported at the port’s other two terminals. On Monday and Tuesday afternoon, the proportion of completed reservations was even lower, so the terminals discontinued the extended hours of operation.
'The low number of completed reservations means that trucking companies are booking the appointments during extended hours, but their drivers are not showing up,” said Jim Cox, Vancouver Port Authority vice president of infrastructure development.
The port said about 9,000 containers (15,300 TEUs) continue to be held up at the lower mainlands container terminals. An additional 2,000 containers (3,400 TEUs) are at the ports of Seattle and Tacoma, waiting for the Vancouver backlog to clear before they are loaded aboard ships destined for Vancouver.
The port estimates that at the current rate the backlog will take more than a month to clear up, while successful extended hours initiatives could have it removed in less time.