Container movement at Maharashtra’s Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPT) has experienced severe operational pressures due to an acute shortage of local truck drivers compounded by logistical disruptions linked directly to the ongoing West Asia crisis. This twin impact has heavily choked terminal throughput, significantly slowing container evacuation timelines and causing massive cargo backlogs to pile up at and around India’s busiest maritime gateway. The driver deficit has emerged as a major bottleneck that drastically delays the turnaround times of transport trailers, while heightened West Asian geopolitical tensions have forced global shipping lines to reroute schedules and divert transit cargo to JNPT, further straining the port’s internal storage capacity. Consequently, multi-sector logistics operators and exporters warn that prolonged transportation delays are hurting the flow of time-sensitive and perishable goods, causing domestic logistics costs to escalate while jeopardizing export timelines. To protect India’s external trade momentum, regional port authorities and government bodies are scrambling to execute short-term contingency plans, focusing on enhancing rail-based cargo evacuation, improving driver availability, and streamlining daily terminal workflows to ease persistence bottlenecks.