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Many innovative measures needed to beat congestion at LA-LB ports

THE president of MOL America Dick Craig has suggested a series of measures to ease congestion at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, including the implementation of a truck appointment system, modernisation of the PierPass extended-gate programme, and creative measures such as the free flowing of cargo.

With 12 container terminals, three intermodal equipment providers, and hundreds of trucking competing for business, and weekly services by the largest vessels that call in North America, it will not be easy to get all of the stakeholders on the same page, he said.

"It's complicated here," Mr Craig said in an address to the Footwear, Trade Distribution and Customs conference in Long Beach, reported IHS Media.

Mr Craig outlined his vision of the future of the port complex: marine terminal consolidation, an "enhanced and more sophisticated PierPass" a standardised trucker appointment system; more peel-off (free-flow) container piles at the terminals; better cargo visibility; a "neutral chassis pool focused on a smoother supply chain" and, possibly, a short-haul rail shuttle from the marine terminals to the distribution warehouses inland.

He added that the two ports are doing their part by fostering collaboration among all of the stakeholders through their joint supply-chain optimisation task force, but the landlord port authorities can only do so much.

Los Angeles-Long Beach this year will handle a record cargo volume of 16 million TEU, which is 2.5 times the volume at the number two US port, New York-New Jersey.

The LA-LB ports' container moves per vessel call is where the problem starts. Most ports handle 1,500 to 3,000 containers during a call. In LA-LB, 80 per cent of each vessel is discharged and reloaded during the three to five days the vessel is in port, generating 7,000 moves per vessel call.

The current 9,000-TEU vessels generate 8,600 container moves per call. When the vessels are upsized to 13,000-TEU capacities as planned, each call is expected to generate 12,000 container moves.

These cargo surges can only be accommodated if terminals deploy a menu of operational processes and improvements. Near the top of the list is creation of a complex-wide dynamic trucker appointment system. Eight of the 12 terminals have appointment systems, but they are siloed and information is not shared throughout the harbour.

Total Terminals International vice president Robert Owens said terminal operators benefit from appointments because it helps them each day to plan their labour and equipment needs and position containers in advance of truck arrivals for efficient delivery of the boxes.

The Harbor Trucking Association worked this past year with Yusen Terminals to develop an appointment system that benefits both the terminal and truckers, said HTA executive director Weston LaBar. The average truck turn time at the terminal is now 67 minutes, down from 140 minutes a year ago, he said.

To make appointments even more effective so the incidence of dual transactions for truckers will increase, information on each container must be shared by all of the parties days before the vessel arrival so appointments can be made 24 hours before the container is projected to clear Customs, Mr LaBar said.

A predictive and dynamic appointment system must be complex-wide so a trucker can schedule more dual transactions that could involve calling at two terminals on the same trip, he said.

PierPass, the first extended-gate programme at a US port, is now in its 12th year and has shifted half of all truck moves to night and weekend shifts, in order to relieve congestion during the peak daytime hours.

"PierPass has done what it is intended to do, but it is a blunt tool and needs to be more sophisticated," Mr Craig said.

PierPass, in fact, has been engaged in a yearlong process to gather input from all port users about how to improve the extended-gate programme and its associated duties. A consultant's report on PierPass changes should be completed next year.