Vessel dwell
Out of seasonUS average vessel dwell at berth
The archived national average time a container ship sits at a US berth, AIS-derived, in hours
Data through Jun 1, 2023 · page updated Jul 10, 2026
Cite
- Vessel dwell at berth
Vessel dwell at berth is a SHIP metric: how long a container ship sits at the berth, AIS-derived, averaged across the top-25 US ports. It peaked at 37 hrs in May 2022 during the 2021 to 2022 congestion, and last reported 27 hrs for June 2023, when BTS paused the series. It is not container (box) dwell on the terminal, and not the ship queue. For the live picture, see the ship queue and the truck planning-time index.
About US average vessel dwell at berth
This is the classic port-dwell number from the pandemic congestion crisis: the monthly average time a container ship sat stationary at a US top-25-port berth, derived from AIS ship-position data by BTS. It is a national aggregate, not a per-port number, and it is a ship metric, not a measure of how long a container then sits in the yard. BTS reported it from January 2019 through June 2023 and has not updated it since, so this page is a labeled historical reference, never a current reading. The metric-precision distinction it teaches, vessel dwell versus box dwell versus the ship queue, is the whole point of this site.
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