LOS ANGELES — The traffic jam of vessels at West Coast ports has been cleared out, but congestion at marine terminals and gates is still a significant problem, according to importers and truckers.

"It's tough. It's real tough," said Joe Nievez, president of Qwikway Trucking in Los Angeles. "We had six drivers down there all day and they got zip - no containers," he said of the Port of Los Angeles-Long Beach.

"We can't get the containers we need," said Clifford Katab, senior manager at Triangle Network, a third-party logistics company in Southern California. "Our drivers used to get two or three turns a day. Now we're lucky if we get one," he said.

Landside congestion is plaguing ports up and down the West Coast. "The drivers are complaining bitterly," said Dan Gatchett, president of West Coast Trucking and chairman of the intermodal committee of the Washington Trucking Association.

The 10-day lock-out of union longshoremen by West Coast port employers ended six weeks ago. At its peak, more than 200 vessels were waiting for space at berths. That backlog was cleared up by early November, but it appears that residual terminal congestion could last well into December.

While shippers, truckers and terminal operators are blaming each other, the logjam appears to be caused by a domino effect spread across the supply chain.

• Shipping lines that skipped some port calls during and immediately after the lock-out dumped more containers at some ports than terminals were used to handling.

• Longshoremen were forced to sift through stacks of grounded boxes to retrieve containers when truckers showed up for their loads.

• Some shippers' warehouses are filled to capacity, and importers have cut back on the number of containers they can pick up. Some marine terminals that would normally receive 1,000 truck calls a day have been receiving half that number, and idle containers are compounding the congestion.

• The usual imbalance of equipment in the trans-Pacific trades has worsened, producing a shortage of chassis in the U.S. and a shortage of empty containers in Asia.

When some Asia shippers ran out of 40-foot containers, they began using two 20-foot boxes instead. West Coast terminals didn't have enough 20-foot chassis to carry the containers.

Railroads have also been affected by the chassis shortage. Burlington Northern Santa Fe said it doesn't have enough available chassis at its Hobart yard in Los Angeles as a direct result of a shortage of chassis in the harbor.

Generally, though, the BNSF and Union Pacific report that lines are fluid. Both railroads lifted the quota system implemented in October, when shipping lines received railcar capacity based on historical usage.

Shippers say marine terminals should extend their gate hours, but terminal operators say they tried this but are not getting enough truck calls to cover their extra costs. A terminal operator in Los Angeles opened its gates last weekend expecting 500 truck calls, but got only 200.

Some terminal operators charge that they are constantly short of labor because of residual anger by longshoremen following the bitter waterfront contract negotiations. A terminal operator in Los Angeles-Long Beach Tuesday requested five top handlers from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union dispatch hall but received none. By contrast, another employer requested, and received, a full complement of transtainer operators.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association agreed to a new six-year contract Nov. 23.

By Bill Mongelluzzo