As supply chain issues continue, U.S. importers are growing increasingly frustrated at the bottlenecks holding up progress. A centerpiece of the bottleneck is a simple piece of steel — the chassis for trucking trailers, needed to transport containers from dockside terminals. These terminals happen to be the epicenter of supply chain issues, particularly at the ports of LA and Long Beach. Port workers say resolving the gridlock is impossible without the chassis, with dockworkers unable to unload quickly and causing backups of shipping containers. Usually, there are enough chassis to handle the containers moving through ports, but due to the influx of consumer imports and continued struggles with the labor shortage, pooled chassis are held for more than nine days on average — double the time they were before the pandemic. These issues, combined with new restrictions from ocean carriers on when empty containers can be returned have compounded the congestion. Read more on the chassis shortage.