October Container Risk at LA–Long Beach: Drayage, Diesel and Free Time

The Port of Long Beach handled 919,992 TEU in August, its busiest August on record, and its chief executive expects heavy volume to continue into October and possibly the first week of November. At the same September 16 briefing, the head of the Intermodal Association of North America said drayage capacity has been sharply curtailed.

If you have containers discharging at Los Angeles or Long Beach in October, the exposure is free time. A container can arrive on schedule and still spend its free days waiting for a truck, and the published dwell averages may not show the deterioration until free time has already expired or charges have begun accruing.

What the San Pedro Bay Numbers Show Now

Reading	Latest figure	Change
Long Beach, August volume	919,992 TEU	Up 2% year on year; busiest August on record
Los Angeles, August volume	About 956,000 TEU	Level with August 2025
Truck dwell, August	2.95 days	Down from 3.03 days in July
Rail dwell, August	6.75 days	Up from 6.34 days in July
California on-highway diesel, week of September 14	$8.039 per gallon	Up from $6.618 in the week of August 10

Readings for the Los Angeles–Long Beach complex as of September 22, 2026. Dwell figures are complex-wide monthly averages from the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association; diesel prices are from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The two dwell figures moved in opposite directions. Rail-bound containers are spending close to a week at the terminals, which our September 17 update on rail dwell covers in detail. Truck dwell eased slightly, and FreightWaves read the August figure as local drayage absorbing the volume without a material slowdown.

Why the Truck Side Needs Watching in October

August’s truck figure describes conditions before the latest warnings. Four things reported since then put pressure on the truck side.

Capacity. Anne Reinke, president and CEO of the Intermodal Association of North America, told the Long Beach briefing that capacity in drayage and over-the-road trucking has been sharply curtailed and that dray rates are climbing fast. Sourcing Journal’s account links the squeeze to elevated fuel prices and federal enforcement on the trucking industry, and The Loadstar tied the driver shortage to Washington’s action against non-domiciled drivers and drivers with limited English.

Fuel. The U.S. Energy Information Administration put California on-highway diesel at $8.039 a gallon for the week of September 14, compared with a national average of $6.285. That is $1.42 a gallon higher than five weeks earlier. Andy Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates estimates that about 8% of global diesel supply is offline because of damage to Russian refineries and disruption in the Middle East.

Volume. Hacegaba said that two months ago he would have expected the peak to run through September and October, and that he is now hearing it may run longer. The Global Port Tracker from the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates forecasts September as the busiest import month of the year at major U.S. container ports.

Diversion. Part of the extra volume is cargo moving west to avoid the Panama Canal, where the canal authority has lowered Neopanamax draft limits in stages this summer, citing water levels in Gatun Lake. Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka said in August that the port was planning for about 5% more volume as shippers route around Panama and the Red Sea. This month he told Bloomberg the rerouting could add a further 5% to 10%. If you moved East or Gulf Coast volume to Los Angeles–Long Beach as a hedge against the canal, the landside risk moved with it.

Where Free Time Goes Before Anyone Reports It

Complex-wide dwell averages arrive weeks after the month they describe. August’s figures were published by the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association on September 15, so September’s are likely to land in mid-October, when October arrivals are already discharging.

The margin can also be thinner than an average implies. August’s 2.95-day truck dwell average shows that containers were already spending close to three days at the terminals, although dwell time and contractual free time are not directly comparable. A single additional day waiting for a driver or terminal appointment can still put an individual container much closer to its last free day. Averages blend quick pickups with slow ones, so some containers will spend considerably longer at the terminal than the headline figure suggests.

Your own containers will show the squeeze before any published number does. The measure to watch is the gap between the Discharged event and the full Gate Out, tracked per container and per terminal. If September arrivals at a terminal that normally clears your boxes in two days are now taking three or more, the tightening has reached your freight.

Start that clock at discharge. Our guide to arrival, holds and last free day shows why Vessel Arrived is a poor trigger for dispatch: some carriers post it while the ship is still waiting at anchor.

If the first sign that a container overstayed its free time is the demurrage invoice, walk through how ops teams track discharge-to-gate-out time against last free day for every container.

If Charges Land, Keep the Timestamps

The Federal Maritime Commission’s interpretive rule on Demurrage & Detention, 46 CFR 545.5, sets out how the Commission weighs whether a charge is working as an incentive to move cargo. It may consider whether free time is tied to when cargo is actually available for pickup and how notice of availability was given. Detention charged when empty containers cannot be returned is likely to be found unreasonable absent extenuating circumstances.

That makes the reason behind each lost day worth recording. A container held for a government inspection or not yet released for pickup raises different questions under that guidance than one waiting on your own trucker. Per-container availability, hold-release and gate timestamps are the evidence either way. Billing disputes also run on fixed deadlines; our breakdown of the FMC’s timing rules sets them out.

What to Re-Check Before October Discharges

List every container due to discharge at Los Angeles or Long Beach between now and early November, with its free-time terms and last free day.
Measure discharge-to-gate-out time on September arrivals by terminal, and flag any terminal running above three days.
Get October dray capacity confirmed in writing, including the number of daily moves each provider has committed to.
Check which diesel price your dray fuel surcharge is keyed to and how often it resets. California diesel rose in every weekly reading from August 10 to September 14.
If you moved volume from East or Gulf Coast ports to Los Angeles–Long Beach this year, confirm that your trucking and rail arrangements grew with it.
The detention clock generally runs until the empty is back, so confirm empty-return locations and hours before each gate-out.
For rail-bound containers, compare the discharge date with the On Rail event. August’s rail dwell average was 6.75 days.

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