Port Congestion and Dwell Times

During this unprecedented year, increasing dwell times and vessel delays have become a regular occurrence throughout Canadian and US ports.

In Canada, we have been seeing increasing dwell times for the West and East Coast terminals mainly due to port congestion and railcar shortages.

The East Coast port congestion (Halifax, NS and Saint John, NB) is a direct result of vessel diversions due to the strike at the Port of Montreal, while certain West Coast ports like Prince Rupert have seen a record number of traffic for months of July and August.

In the US, the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles are also currently experiencing extreme congestion, as well as appointment availability issues and chassis shortage.

OEC is working with all stakeholders to ensure the quickest possible evacuation and understand the importance of getting containers moving quickly.