Washington United Terminals (WUT) has announced the introduction of a “long stay rehandling” fee, effective from 15 November, for all local import units that have exceeded 15 calendar days on the terminal.
Following the measures of San Pedro Bay ports and Tacoma’s Husky Terminal, WUT will implement a long term dwell fee of US$310 per unit aiming to ease the cargo movement on the terminal.
As the US West Coast port congestion worsens, “this action is designed to encourage the rapid movement of local import containers,” said WUT.
“Despite our best efforts, the local import container dwell at WUT has continued to increase which has directly impacted our operations and terminal fluidity,” noted WUT.
“The increased dwell has also caused additional yard rehandling and the need to constantly restock the RTG delivery rows,” added WUT, which claims it has made every effort to make and keep cargo available for pick up, but unfortunately the long dwell containers are making this extremely difficult.
Units will be placed on hold and payment will be due prior to making an appointment, according to a statement.
Payments will be a manual process, to begin with, and will require payment via check or wire transfer but will eventually be made through eModal.
