Amid a wave of unprecedented tariffs, anxiety is running high for truck drivers like Helen, who makes her living delivering cargo containers from the Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors to warehouses and other customers around Southern California.
After a strong start to the year, the number of jobs has started to slip in recent days and truck drivers have heard reports predicting a sharp decline in incoming cargo for May and June.
Helen, a 38-year-old mother of three, said her family has to stretch to make ends meet even under normal conditions.
“There’s real concern that we’re going to be struggling,” said Helen, a Downey resident who declined to give her last name for fear she might lose work if she is considered disgruntled. “If ships are not coming in and there are no loads, then there is no work. If there is no work there’s no money.”
As President Trump’s aggressive tariffs rattle business owners and shake the foundation of American importing, the men and women who work on the ground at the country’s busiest port are feeling the effects too.
Thousands of dockworkers, heavy equipment operators and truck drivers support a flurry of activity at the Port of Los Angeles, which covers 7,500 acres on San Pedro Bay and processed more than 10 million 20-foot-long cargo units in 2024. The neighboring Port of Long Beach moved 9.6 million 20-foot equivalent units, or TEUs, last year.
With a 145% tariff on China, a 25% tariff on Canada and Mexico, and 10% tariffs on dozens of other countries, the flow of goods into the U.S. is expected to slow drastically.
Fewer shipments into the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach mean less work for the Californians who move cargo, said Raman Dhillon, chief executive of the North American Punjabi Trucking Assn.
“The truckers are scrambling right now,” he said. “They are at the verge of collapsing. The administration needs to move quickly, or it’s going to be chaos and price hikes and empty shelves.”
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla of California and two other Democratic senators called a news conference Thursday to decry Trump’s tariffs, predicting lost jobs, higher prices and stores bereft of merchandise.
Dozens of agricultural exporters also held a conference call this week to express their fear about how the tariffs, and retaliatory levies by other countries, will affect overseas markets.
“The drop in cargo volume caused by Trump’s tariffs will mean empty shelves when products don’t reach our stores, rising prices on everything from groceries to clothes to cars, and undoubtedly, more Americans out of work,” Padilla said.
A 2023 report found that the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach contributed $21.8 billion in direct revenue to local service providers, generating $2.7 billion in state and local taxes and creating 165,462 jobs, directly and indirectly.
A decline of just 1% in cargo to the ports would wipe away 2,769 jobs and endanger as many as 4,000 others, the study found.
Last week, Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka said arrivals could drop by 35% over the next 14 days.
This threat looms large for members of ILWU Local 13, a union representing longshoremen who unload cargo and support port operations.
“They’re just wondering what’s going to happen,” ILWU Local 13 President Gary Herrera said of his members. “Some of the workforce will not be getting their full 40 hours a week based on the loss of cargo. Job loss is definitely a concern.”
According to Herrera and port officials, there will be more than 30 “blank sailings” in May at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, which occur when cargo ships cancel planned trips. That will mean 400,000 fewer containers will be shipped through the ports, officials said.
The impending downturn at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles comes not long after the twin facilities reported booming activity, tied to a labor dispute that shut down major ports on the East and Gulf coasts. Nearly one-third of all cargo containers delivered to the U.S. travel through Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Navdeep Gill, who owns the Northern California trucking company Ocean Rail Logistics, said his business is already moving 60% to 70% less cargo as a result of the tariffs.
Gill’s truckers, who haul goods from the Port of Oakland, typically move 50 containers a week. Recently, they have been moving 10 to 15, Gill said.
“When we are not doing anything and the trucks are not working, then we lose money,” he said. His company hauls industrial goods, paper and food products.
“We have fixed expenses like insurance that we cannot bypass, so we’re losing money,” Gill said.
Over the three-day period ending Sunday, 10 container ships are expected at the Port of Los Angeles. That’s a decline from the 17 container ships that typically arrive every three days at this time of year, according to a memo from a trade group that represents shippers.
“That is going to have an effect on the work opportunities for not just us, but for truck drivers, warehouse workers and logistics teams,” said Herrera, the union president. “This is the ripple effect of not having work at the waterfront.”
Helen said that some of her fellow drivers had hoped for a better economy under Trump. Her own exposure is doubled because her husband also drives trucks to and from the ports. Because she is paid per load, Helen’s income does not meet the minimum wage when there are too few jobs available.
“We feel like it’s going to get worse before it gets better,” she said. “You feel this looming uncertainty. It’s hanging over everybody.”
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