After two weeks of working all-out to clear its worst congestion problem since 2002, the Port of Oakland on Friday reported reduced vessel backups and yard congestion, improved truck transaction items and better terminal productivity.

“This isn’t victory - there’s still a great deal of work to do – but we’re seeing good collaboration between labor, terminal operators and harbor truckers, and our customers will soon benefit from faster, smoother cargo flow,” said John Driscoll, the port’s maritime director.

Oakland executives say the crippling backup of vessels at anchor, and containers on the marine terminals, resulted from labor-management disputes during the nine months of negotiations between the international Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association. A tentative contract was announced on Feb. 20 that is still subject to ratification.

Since the announcement, marine terminals having been working nights and weekends. Requests for longshore labor are being filled. Sustained container lifts per crane, per hour, are in the range of 25 to 30. Oakland crane operations have always been the best on the coast, and port executives said they anticipate a return to the historical level of 30 to 35 moves per hour when the port returns to normal.

On Thursday, six vessels were anchored in San Francisco Bay or were outside the Golden Gate Bridge. That is down from a high of 20 in mid-February. The vessel logjam is expected to dissipate in 10 days, port officials said. Terminal operators have cleared out the huge backing of loaded import containers, bringing the facilities down to covering 50 to 60 percent of yard capacity. Import containers are now available for immediate pickup when they are lifted off of the ships.

The terminals are once again accepting export loads and empty containers. That is good news because chassis were in short supply when the terminals were unable to receive exports and empties. Now, when those containers are removed from the chassis, the equipment is freed up to remove import loads from the terminals.

Despite improvements in several areas, port executives say it will take about two more months to completely clear the backlogs and for vessel rotations to return to normal. The main problem is that Los Angeles-Long Beach will struggle with severe congestion for the next two to three months, and therefore vessels will continue to run off schedule for some weeks, affecting Oakland, where nearly all its vessel calls are on rotations that first call at LA-Long Beach.

The normal rotation in the Pacific Southwest services is Los Angeles-Long Beach inbound and Oakland outbound. The good news is that lines which had been truncating voyages in Southern California to get back on schedule are resuming their calls in Oakland.

Truckers are benefiting from the reduced congestion. Gate times are faster and waits in the yards are shorter. Because the terminals are once again accepting export containers and empties, drivers are getting more opportunities for two-way hauls.

“Gains in container movement are visible from ship to shore,” the port stated.