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NY-NJ dockers seek low-rent chassis parks - for port's sake

HIGH rents charged for container chassis parking - as high as that charged to marine terminals - has upset New York dockers who say this drives away ships and shippers from the port.

"Other port authorities along the east coast are providing land to their chassis pools at substantially less than market rate," said International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) vice president Dennis Daggett.

"That's with the understanding that an efficient chassis pool will serve to make a port more competitive," said Mr Daggett.

The ILA expressed these concerns to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), adding that container chassis providers were moving out of marine terminals to other locations near the docks.

The letter was addressed to PANYNJ commerce director Molly Campbell and the president of the employers negotiating group, John Nardi of the New York Shipping Association, reported American Shipper.

Mr Daggett was also writing to them as co-chairs of the Council on Port Performance, a stakeholders' group contrived to make the port more competitive.

One of the council's priorities has been the creation a "grey" chassis pool, with equipment from chassis lessors Flexi-Van, Direct ChassisLink (DCLI), and TRAC Intermodal - similar to what exists in Los Angeles and Long Beach.

While Flexi-Van and DCLI set up a grey pool, TRAC, which owns two-thirds of the 30,000 chassis in the port area, is not a member, because it wants a greater say than the other two will allow in running the pool.

Mr Daggett said the rents sought from chassis providers will drive them out of the port and out of business, thereby destroying the "grey" pool all have worked so hard to achieve".