One of the main companies responsible for just abandoning shipping containers is United Clean Trucks Inc. (UCTI), whose headquarters is in Wilmington in southern Los Angeles, around two miles north of the Port of Los Angeles.
Workers at UCTI, a freight shipping and trucking company, have been working overtime due to the massive congestion in the ports and the ramping up of delivery services to twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. (Related: Efforts to keep ports open 24-7 to reduce cargo ship backlog aren't going to work because insane trucking regulations in Dem-controlled California are keeping trucks off the road.)
But the problem is UCTI's lot in Wilmington can only hold up to 65 shipping containers. California regulations prevent the company from maximizing the use of its lot by stacking the shipping containers on top of each other.
Because of the need for more space, the company has been lining the neighborhood's streets with shipping containers. Sometimes the large containers are just sitting in front of the homes of the neighborhood's residents.
One of the neighborhood residents affected by this is Sonia Cervantes, who lives in the same street as UCTI.
"It's a bunch of neighbors that are very upset because it's a nonstop situation," she said. "I would have to go in at 6:30 a.m. to go to work. There was a trailer already blocking my driveway so I couldn't get out. With no driver in the trailer, so we would honk and honk, and it was just crazy."
"They're sitting in the street for like 15, 20 minutes," Cervantes continued. "Sometimes they just unload the trailer in the street with no front part of it, and they just leave it there."
Frank Arrieran, the owner of UCTI, said he has no choice but to leave the containers in the streets. "Right now with the ports and everything that's going on over there, we're stuck with the containers, having to bring them all to the yard, and we only have so much space."
Arrieran said he is doing everything he can to make sure the spillover of shipping containers will no longer affect Wilmington's residents. He is asking for their understanding in the meantime.
"We've been messed with tickets and being harassed," said Arrieran. "We ask the community to help us because we're only in the middle."
Arrieran is set to meet with city officials soon. He is hoping they will help him relocate the extra shipping containers to a bigger lot.
Ramping up of trucking operations is causing accidents
Due to Wilmington's proximity to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, a lot more trucks pass through the neighborhood on average. This, coupled with the longer hours truckers are forced to work due to the labor shortages, is causing accidents.
Just recently, a shipping container crushed a car in the neighborhood. Residents said they already expected this to happen, as the congestion at the ports spills over into their neighborhood.
The accident occurred at around 3 p.m. in the same block as UCTI's lot. Police officers who responded to the incident said the shipping container was improperly attached to the truck. The container shifted and fell when the driver turned onto the street.
Aerial footage shows a Maersk shipping container on top of a car and partially covering the sidewalk. Fortunately, the car was parked and its owner was at work in the neighborhood. Nobody was hurt.
Wilmington resident John Salas says living conditions in the neighborhood have gotten worse due to the truck traffic. "Kids can't even play [outside]," he said. "That's why we put barricades up and put signs. Trucks come down the street and they're not even supposed to. It's not even a through street. They've got to make a left or right."
Valerie Contreras, a member of the Wilmington Neighborhood Council, believes trucks should be barred from passing through the neighborhood.
"The trucks should not be going through the residential street and we need to put a stop to that," she said. "There are too many trucks coming to Wilmington, meaning there are too many storage yards and facilities and we need to make sure it's regulated."
Residents like Salas and Contreras claim the truck drivers are ignoring signs that say trucks over 6,000 pounds are barred from entering the neighborhood. More members of the Los Angeles Police Department have been dispatched to Wilmington to keep a close eye on the traffic and make sure truckers are following the rules of the road.
Learn more about the disastrous levels of congestion at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach by reading the latest articles at CaliforniaCollapse.news.
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