Reuters - President Joe Biden pushed Wednesday to ease chain supply log jams that are threatening the all-important U.S. holiday shopping season.
A port in Long Beach, California joins Los Angeles to expand operations around the clock.
Consumer goods manufacturers, delivery companies and retailers - which make most of their annual revenue in the last quarter of the year - put their weight behind the shift, meeting virtually with Biden and promising stepped up operations.
The world's largest retailer said it would increase its use of nighttime hours at ports significantly and estimated that it could increase by as much as 50% throughput over the next several weeks.
As the ports move towards 24 7 operations, that s just going to help increase our overall effectiveness and increase the volume of merchandise that we can move through those ports and get to customers, a spokesman said.
Target, which moves about half its shipping containers at night, has committed to increase that amount in the next 90 days by 10% to help ease congestion at the ports.
The big-box retailer said it fully supports investments to increase efficiency at our nation s ports, including expanding infrastructure and sharing data across industries to help with port traffic control.
The company said it plans to ship up to 10% additional containers per week during the newly available off-peak hours for the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Samsung stated it would ship nearly 60% more container out of these ports by operating 24 7 during the next 90 days.
Delivery company UPS said it would increase its use of 24/7 operations and enhanced data sharing with the ports, which could allow it to move up to 20% more containers from the ports.
FedEx said it would combine an increase in nighttime hours with changes to trucking and rail use to increase the volume of containers it will move from the ports.
The company said the changes could double cargo it moves out of the ports at night.