California congestion continues

The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has signed an executive order directing state agencies to identify additional ways to alleviate congestion at California ports.

The executive order builds on earlier efforts this year by the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) to ease supply chain issues caused by record demand for imported goods combined with capacity issues.

“California’s ports are critical to our local, state and national economies and the state is taking action to support goods movement in the face of global disruptions,” said Governor Newsom. “My administration will continue to work with federal, state, labour and industry partners on innovative solutions to tackle immediate challenges while also bringing our distribution processes into the 21st century.”

The executive order directs state agencies to continue coordinating with the Biden-Harris Administration Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force to address state, national and global supply chain challenges.

Long-term solutions

It also directs the Department of Finance to work with state agencies to develop longer-term solutions that support port operations and goods movement for consideration in the January Governor’s Budget, such as infrastructure improvements, electrification of the goods movement system from port to delivery, and workforce development.

Additionally, the executive order directs state agencies to identify locations that could be available to address short-term storage needs, to identify priority freight routes to be considered for a temporary exemption to current gross vehicle limits, and to create workforce training and education programs.

Earlier this year, GO-Biz launched the California Supply Chain Success Initiative to tackle supply chain issues, which included implementing a new 24/7 environment at key ports.