Ranking · dwell, ordered by how much of each figure is disclosed · read 07/26/2026
US ports publish five different measurements under the name dwell time, and the one figure we could date moved 15% in a month
- US ports do not publish one dwell time. Los Angeles alone carries five figures in a single season — 3.1 days, an average of 3.64 with a 95th percentile of 6.04, 5.7 days and 6.75 days — a spread of 2.2 times. They are not disagreeing about the same quantity; they are counting different things.
- Dwell time in this result set means at least five measurements: vessel dwell, which times the ship rather than the box; import dwell; local import dwell; rail dwell; and yard dwell. Savannah publishes three of them at once, running from about 20 hours to about 9.1 days, and they are not comparable with each other.
- US container ports are ranked here by how completely each figure is disclosed rather than by how small it is, because a smaller number with no definition cannot be planned against. Exactly one figure in our whole reading carries a named measure, a month and a dated source, and it measures rail dwell across a bay rather than a port.
- Dwell time is a statistic, not a contract term, and it does not tell you whether your box is still inside free time. Free time comes from your carrier's tariff and is counted by the carrier; dwell is measured afterwards by a port or an association. The one dated figure we hold moved about 15% in a single month.
Every published dwell figure we found, ordered by how much of it is disclosed
US ports publish dwell time as though it were one quantity. It is five: how long the ship stays, how long an import box sits, how long a locally delivered box sits, how long a box waits for rail, and how long it sits in the yard. Below is every published figure we found, ordered by how much of it is actually disclosed.
How this table is built · what we are paid
- Ordered by completeness of disclosure — is the measure named, is the period named, is the source dated, is the level named — and only then by magnitude.
- Every row except the first two is a figure quoted in the market with no primary document behind it, and the status column says so. These are not the ports’ own statistics.
- The five measures are never merged into one column and never averaged against each other. A mean of vessel dwell and yard dwell is a quantity with no subject.
- The two dated rows measure rail dwell across the Los Angeles and Long Beach bay. They belong to the bay, not to either port on its own, and they are labelled that way everywhere on this site.
- No port has paid to appear here or to be positioned here, and no link on this site is a referral link.
| Place | Figure | What it measures | Period | Level | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles / Long Beach | 5.06 days | rail dwell | April 2026 | the bay, not either port | read, with a dated sourcePacific Merchant Shipping Association, reported 05/20/2026 |
| Los Angeles / Long Beach | 4.41 days | rail dwell | March 2026 | the bay, not either port | read, with a dated sourcePacific Merchant Shipping Association, reported 05/20/2026 |
| Savannah | about 20 hours | rail dwell | not published | port | quoted in the market, no documentsearch results · read 07/26/2026 |
| Savannah | 3.9 days | import dwell | not published | port | quoted in the market, no documentsearch results · read 07/26/2026 |
| Savannah | about 9.1 days | yard dwell | not published | port | quoted in the market, no documentsearch results · read 07/26/2026 |
| Los Angeles | 3.1 days | local import dwell | not published | port | quoted in the market, no documentsearch results · read 07/26/2026 |
| Los Angeles | 5.7 days | import dwell | not published | port | quoted in the market, no documentsearch results · read 07/26/2026 |
| Los Angeles | 6.75 days | rail dwell | not published | port | quoted in the market, no documentsearch results · read 07/26/2026 |
| Los Angeles | 3.64 days, 95th percentile 6.04 | not publishedthe population behind the average is not stated | not published | port | quoted in the market, no documentsearch results · read 07/26/2026 |
| Long Beach | about 4 days | not published | not published | port | quoted in the market, no documentsearch results · read 07/26/2026 |
| The first two rows are the only ones carrying a period and a dated source, and both measure rail dwell across a bay. The top of this ranking does not answer the question in the page’s own title, and that is the single most important fact here: the best-disclosed dwell figure in the whole reading is not a port figure at all. | |||||
No port on this table differs from another as much as one port differs from itself. Savannah’s own three figures run from about 20 hours to about 9.1 days, and Los Angeles spans 2.2 times across five. Those are not disagreements about a port; they are different quantities sharing a word.
Dwell time is a statistic, free time is a contract, and only one of them bills you
Dwell time is a statistic and free time is a contract, and only one of them bills you. Dwell is computed after the fact by a port or an association across many containers; free time is a term in your carrier’s tariff, counted by the carrier, against your box. A port average of four days tells you nothing about whether your container is still inside free time.
How many free days each tariff actually gives, and which of them names the hour the count starts: how many free days each port allows.
How this dwell ranking is built and who paid for a place in it
What we are paid
- Nothing on this page has been paid for. No port, terminal or carrier has paid to appear here, to be positioned here, or to be left out, and no outbound link on this site is a referral link.
- If that ever changes, the rate goes on the page carrying the link, at one rate, the same for everyone — and a position in a table still will not be for sale.
What those days cost once free time ends, priced from the tariffs themselves: the cost stack ranked port by port.
Why no port can be called shortest on this page
No US port can be called shortest on this page, and there are three separate reasons rather than one.
How each status on this site is defined and what it may be used for: how every figure here is sourced.
What the market publishes when it is asked which port is shortest
Dwell is the one subject in this cluster where the search engine says out loud that it has no answer.
| What we measured | Value |
|---|---|
| The engine’s own notice on the head query | the word “shortest” is reported missing from the results, with an offer to search for it — the search engine stating directly that no ranked answer exists |
| What the related searches ask for instead | the same query with 2022 and with 2021 — readers looking for any year that had an answer |
| A measure ranking on this query that times the ship rather than the box | vessel dwell, container vessel dwell, average container vessel dwell |
| Figures published with a named measure and a period | two, both from one association |
| Figures published with neither | eight of the ten in the table above |
our own capture of the dwell queries, Google US, 07/26/2026
A market that answers a question with eight undated numbers and one interface notice is not hiding the answer. It does not have one, because the quantity was never defined before it was published.
Dwell is not billed, but the days it counts are
Dwell itself is never billed. No invoice is issued for it anywhere — but the days it counts are billed, by up to three different parties.
| Charge for those days | Billed by | Owed by | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carrier demurrage | Ocean carrier | Consignee or the counterparty named on the invoice, not both | $125–$390 first paid day8 of 9 tariffs · read 07/28–07/29/2026 |
| Terminal storage | Marine terminal operator | Cargo interest, usually via the carrier | not checked yetgap A — about 80 tariffs |
| Sustained Import Dwell Fee | Port Houston, the authority itself | Cargo interest | $45 per unit per day from day 8Port Houston · read 07/26/2026 |
| Chassis per diem | Chassis pool or carrier | Motor carrier, passed through | not checked yetgap G |
| Dwell itself | nobody | nobody | not applicableit is a statistic about the past, not a charge |
If a bill arrives for the days your box sat
Dwell figures do not produce invoices; demurrage and storage do, and those invoices answer to 46 CFR Part 541, in force since 05/28/2024. The rule has been before the D.C. Circuit twice since, and the decision of 09/29/2025 changed who may be billed, so read the current text at eCFR rather than a summary of the 2024 announcement.
What the invoice has to contain and how the dispute runs at the carrier: the federal rules your invoice has to meet.
Descriptive, not legal advice. The tariff and the invoice in your own file govern.
The three ports whose dwell figures we read, and what each one measures
Three ports have dwell figures in circulation, and each one illustrates a different way the number fails to travel.
Savannah — where one port disagrees with itself most
About 20 hours of rail dwell, about 3.9 days of import dwell and about 9.1 days of yard dwell, all for the same port in the same season. The distance between its own three measures is larger than the distance between any two ports on this page.
quoted in the market, no primary document · what it costs to land a box at savannah
Los Angeles — the most figures and the least comparability
Five published numbers: 3.1, 3.64 with a 95th percentile of 6.04, 5.7 and 6.75, plus the bay rail figure. A 2.2-fold spread, and the port runs a live Cargo Operations Dashboard that would settle most of it — found and unread.
quoted in the market, plus one dashboard found · what it costs to land a box at los angeles
Long Beach — the least disclosure with the most instruments
One number, about four days, published with neither a measure nor a period — and three live panels covering its bay, none of them read. It is last in this ranking because of what it does not say rather than because of what it counts.
quoted in the market, no primary document · what it costs to land a box at long beach
Where a dwell number does not apply
A dwell number does not apply in five situations, and the first of them is why this query looks richer than it is.
- Vessel dwell is not container dwell. It times how long the ship stays alongside, and it ranks on this very query. Nothing about it describes your box.
- A bay figure is not a port figure. The two dated rows here cover Los Angeles and Long Beach together. Attributing them to one of the two is inventing a measurement.
- An average without its population is not a statistic. A figure of 3.64 days with a 95th percentile of 6.04 and no stated population cannot be checked or reproduced.
- Rail dwell and yard dwell answer different questions. If your box leaves by truck, the rail figure is irrelevant to you, and at Savannah those two differ more than tenfold.
- Dwell says nothing about your own free time. It is an average over other people’s containers, computed after the fact.
How fast dwell changes, measured on the one figure we could date
Dwell moves fast enough that an undated figure is not a fact. The one quantity on this page with a month attached — rail dwell across the Los Angeles and Long Beach bay — went from 4.41 days in March 2026 to 5.06 in April, about 15% in a single month. Eight of the ten rows above carry no month at all, and that is the whole argument for ordering this table by disclosure rather than by size.
Reading any of the three live dashboards would change the top of this ranking, and that is expected: the ranking measures disclosure, and disclosure changes when we read.
Questions about port dwell time
Which US port has the shortest dwell time?
The question cannot be answered from published sources. Five different measurements travel under the name dwell, and only two of the ten figures we found carry a period. Google itself reports that the word shortest is missing from the results it returns for this query.
What is port dwell?
Not one quantity. At least five: vessel dwell, which times the ship; import dwell; local import dwell; rail dwell; and yard dwell. A figure without its measure named is not usable against another figure.
Is dwell time the same as free time?
No. Dwell is a statistic a port or an association computes after the fact. Free time is a term in your carrier's tariff, counted by the carrier. A port average of four days tells you nothing about whether your box is still inside free time.
What is a good dwell time?
The question needs a measure and a period before it has an answer. The only dated figure in our reading is rail dwell across the Los Angeles and Long Beach bay at 5.06 days for April 2026, which is a bay figure and a rail figure.
Does dwell time cost me money?
No invoice is issued for dwell itself. The same days land in the carrier's demurrage after free time and in the terminal's storage. Houston charges a sustained import dwell fee of $45 per unit per day from day 8, and that one is a port charge.
Why do sources give different dwell numbers for the same port?
Because they measure different things. Los Angeles carries five figures in one season with a spread of 2.2 times, and they include a local import measure, an import measure, a rail measure and an average reported alongside a 95th percentile.
Where does the dwell number come from?
From a port or a shipping association, computed after the fact. Three live dashboards cover the Los Angeles and Long Beach bay alone, and we have found all three and read none of them.
How often does dwell change?
Fast enough that an undated figure is not a fact. The one figure we could date rose about 15% in a single month, from 4.41 days in March 2026 to 5.06 in April.
Dwell is how long boxes actually sat, free time is what your tariff allows, and congestion is how long the ship waits. Three quantities, three pages, and the confusion between them is what makes a single dwell number look like an answer.