IWLA joined other supply chain stakeholders in a letter of support of the Port Performance Act, a provision written into the Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy (DRIVE) Act that calls for active tracking of uniform port performance data to identify factors leading to congestion.

The port congestion issue has be top of mind for the industry in light of the West Coast disputes and a shift in the larger ships coming to U.S. ports in recent years. The country’s port infrastructure is not equipped to process cargo on the large scale that is arriving to them.

According to the letter, in order to solve the port problem, the government needs to fully understand what creates the problems. This can only be achieved through key performance metrics.

The letter states: “While we recognize that every port is different, the exercise of defining a set of common performance metrics will go a long way toward helping policymakers, port administrators, and American exporters and importers understand the dynamics that create congestion, thereby enabling them to work together to find solutions that will benefit the U.S. economy.”