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The Port of Los Angeles, the U.S.’s largest for container traffic, has deferred a plan to charge ocean carriers that fail to clear empty containers off the docks and is consulting with the logistics industry on alternatives on how to cut the backlogs.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg during a Jan. 11 tour of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach lauded the efforts that have kept freight moving through the facilities amid crushing backlogs.

Atlantic and Pacific ports in November continued their record-setting pace as imports continue to flood into the country during the peak of the holiday shopping season.

The first major update of U.S. international ocean-shipping laws in more than two decades, which passed in the House this week, will help boost transparency in the industry if passed by the Senate, the head of the Port of Los Angeles said.

The record volume of cargo moving through the busiest U.S. port complex is likely to continue amid high consumer demand for goods, the head of the Port of Long Beach said.

The country's largest ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will postpone the start of a fee on ocean carriers that fail to clear containers off the docks, which was set to begin Nov 15.

Union Pacific Corp. has begun receiving trucks around-the-clock at its freight facility near the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, extending operating time by about 20 hours a week to help ease cargo congestion.

Some of the nation’s largest carriers and the operators of the country’s busiest port are joining a White House effort to ease crippling bottlenecks that are vexing supply chains through expanded service offerings that include, in some cases, 24/7 operations.

The federal government needs to invest more in West Coast ports, said the head of the Port of Los Angeles, which is the nation’s biggest gateway to Asia and is grappling with record backlogs.

To understand why more than 100 containerships are waiting to enter U.S. ports from Southern California to Savannah, Ga., it helps to keep tabs on the congestion that’s building at another key junction of freight transportation: rail yards.