Drayage Costs are Skyrocketing in the Inland Empire

According to a report by CBRE’s Nicole Moler and Jamil Harness, Inland Empire’s trucking costs are skyrocketing. Both the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports have seen an increase in container volume, causing drayage costs, the costs of transporting goods over short distances, to nearly double.

Since 70 percent of containers from these busy ports travel into the Inland Empire, the increasing costs have become a burden to clients and affected drivers’ pay. Average turn around time for trucks in October 2013 was 62 minutes, and that number increased to 90 minutes by July 2014.

Additionally, the average inbound cost of transportation faced a 47 percent increase from $429.16 to $636.34 in July 2014. Data like this caused a clash between ports workers this year as strikes occurred in September. On one hand, warehouse workers have the right to unionize, but truckers are often given independent-contractor titles, which is causing a huge wage gap between the two kinds of workers at the ports.