As the supply chain crisis continues, the logjam at California's ports for ships to wait has reached as long as 17 days.
There were as many as 83 ships at anchor and in a holding pattern outside ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach as of Friday night, a new record, officials said.
The nearly 17-day wait is double the wait time from two months ago.
California Governor Gavin Newsom is attempting to address the problem by doubling capacities at the state's DMV in an effort to conduct more commercial driving tests.
'With today's announcement, we'll get more truckers on the road to get goods where they need to go faster,' said Governor Newsom. 'The supply chain crisis is not a California specific problem, but we've taken swift action to relieve congestion and increase our capacity to move goods quickly.'
The Port of Long Beach, alongside the Port of Los Angeles, are currently dealing with over two-week long logjams of ships waiting to come in
As many as 83 boats have been either anchored or in a holding zone as of Friday night
California Governor Gavin Newsom (pictured) is attempting to ramp up production by allowing for more commercial license tests at DMVs
Trucks haul shipping containers out of the Port of Los Angeles in late October
The California DMV will open up Saturday hours at various test sites.
The logjams at the ports come as strained supply chains have caused controversy for President Joe Biden as they combine with inflation and shortages of workers.
'Every sector of the supply chain has reached capacity,' Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero said in a statement earlier this week. 'We are trying to add capacity by searching for vacant land to store containers, expanding the hours of operation at terminals, and implementing a fee that will incentivize ocean carriers to pull their containers out of the port as soon as possible.'
Biden said on Wednesday that most Americans cannot understand the problems faced by the United States' supply chains, adding that 'not a lot of people' have a clear grasp of the networks and their implications.
Speaking at the port of Baltimore, where he touted his $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill - which was passed by Congress on Friday, and which he plans to sign into law on Monday - Biden said that investing in resiliency was essential.
'You hear a lot about the supply chains in the news, but frankly, not a lot of people have a clear understanding, whether they have a Ph.D. or they didn't go to school, about how a supply chain works,' the president said.
'In simple terms, supply chain is just the journey that a product takes to get to your doorstep,' he said.
Joe Biden is seen on Wednesday speaking at the port of Baltimore, to promote his infrastructure package
Biden is seen on Monday with shipping containers in the background, loaded on a cargo ship
Biden said that it was understandable that most people did not fully comprehend the complexity of global supply chains
The president in Baltimore also admitted that his decision to send out stimulus checks contributed to the current high inflation.
'The irony is people have more money now because of the first major piece of legislation I passed.
'You all got checks for $1,400. You got checks for a whole range of things,' Biden said, referencing his COVID relief checks sent out in April.
'If you're a mom and you have kids under the age of 7, you get $300 a month and if it's over 7 to 17, you're getting $360 a month,' he said, misstating the second amount, which is $250 per month.
'It changes people's lives. But what happens if there's nothing to buy and you got more money to compete for getting [goods]? It creates a real problem.'
'On the one hand, we're facing new disruptions to our supplies. At the same time, we're also experiencing higher demand for goods because wages are up as well as people have money in the bank. And because of the strength of our economic recovery, American
