Despite the global drop in demand, shortage in marine chassis was still an issue in Chicago and Kansas City during the first weeks of the year. Shippers mentioned clogged warehouses as one of the key reasons for keeping trucks on the streets and dwell times high. According to the Journal of Commerce (JOC), the cities are the two remaining inland markets that continue to face congestion coming into 2023. Other cities, however, witnessed lower volumes shipped by trains and trucks as a result of the nationwide drop in imports. Ocean carrier Hapag-Lloyd described the chassis availability in Chicago and Kansas City as constrained with deficiency on 40’ chassis. In an operational update, the carrier highlighted the average dwell time for rail and truck movement in Kansa City exceeded 16 days. Hamburg Süd had also reported “congestion at destination ramps and accumulating a backlog of cargo at origin ports” in Chicago/Dallas. Mike O’Malley, senior vice president of public and government relations for chassis provider DCLI, told JOC, “The number of grounded containers in Midwest markets has declined significantly over the last few months.” “Nevertheless, street dwell remains at historically high levels and continues to affect chassis supply,” he added. However, industry experts anticipate the situation will be resolved by the end of Q1 2023. JOC cited Val Noel, chief operating officer for chassis provider TRAC Intermodal, as saying, “Over the next 30 to 60 days, we’ll still see inflated chassis dwell times, but by the end of the first quarter, we’ll hopefully get a better feel for what a new [post-pandemic] norm might look like in street dwell.”