Long Beach Drayage Capacity Tightens as Asia Imports Surge 9.4%.
April TEU volumes through San Pedro Bay hit a near-record. With chassis pools running 92% utilization, intermodal ramps in the Inland Empire are the new bottleneck — and a leading indicator for May contract negotiations.
April TEU volumes through the San Pedro Bay complex closed within 1.8% of the all-time high set in October 2024. Asia-origin volumes are running 9.4% above April 2025. The drayage market is pricing it in.
The proximate constraint is chassis. Pool utilization at PierPass-participating terminals broke 92% on April 23 and hasn't dropped below 88% since. When chassis utilization runs that hot, every loaded container waiting for a chassis is an empty terminal slot — and every empty terminal slot is dwell time the importer is paying for. Drayage providers have responded by raising per-move rates 8–11% versus March benchmarks. Several major BCOs we spoke with have begun floating "chassis allocation premiums" into their May tender packages.
The downstream signal — and the more interesting one — is happening 60 miles inland. Intermodal ramp velocity at the BNSF and Union Pacific Inland Empire terminals has slowed for three straight weeks. UP Mira Loma's average container dwell hit 2.9 days; BNSF San Bernardino is at 3.1. Both are levels that historically lead a 3–4 week tightening in transcon intermodal pricing.
What it means
If you're negotiating a May intermodal contract, you're negotiating into a market where the IPI lane is the binding constraint, not the dray. Build that into your fuel surcharge model — the dray premium is the symptom, but the rail dwell is what's going to move the contract.