Several issues were raised during the conference held in Long Beach this month, among them was the unresolved labour issue affecting dockworkers of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The dispute, which has been on the table since May last year, pushed shippers to divert cargo from West Coast ports to East Coast ports. As a result, the LA-LB port complex lost part of its market share, which gave way to the Port of New York and New Jersey to become the busiest port in the US for several months in a row.

However, it is not only the labour issue that needs to be resolved to win back cargo. Speaking at the Journal of Commerce’s TPM23 conference last week, Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka said that the ports of California need to become more “business-friendly” in order to regain market share.

Seroka highlighted that California’s clean air rules for trucks have raised the cost to shippers using the port. In addition, rules impacting the use of independent-contractor drivers and warehouse development are discouraging shippers from moving their cargo through Californian ports, according to JOC.

Seroka stressed that businesses and ports need to work together to succeed in attracting cargo back to LA-LB ports. “Our lift costs are double that of Savannah’s and that’s simply not sustainable,” he said during the conference. “I cannot go to Washington, DC and Sacramento alone anymore. I need the [California] private sector and other agencies in [state] government to work with me together on this.”