Drayage

DP World-operated container terminals at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust are rolling out more steps to improve truck turn times, which have been a source of concern for shippers and drayage services providers using India’s busiest container gateway during the past year amid growing freight volumes.

Schneider National's Port Logistics Division is opening a transloading, drayage and warehousing facility in New Jersey to tap containerized inbound shipments.

The International Maritime Organization’s controversial container weight mandate could exacerbate the U.S. truck driver shortage and crimp supply chains far inland from U.S. ports.

The recent decision by Hub Group to discontinue its employee-based drayage operation in Southern California is the latest event in a tug of war between the independent contractor model of trucking and the employee model that is likely to continue for some time to come and the result will impact costs for shippers.

Marine terminals in Los Angeles-Long Beach that have collaborated with cargo interests and truckers on creative programs such as dray-offs and free-flow of containers recorded the best gate turn times in January, according to data published by the Harbor Trucking Association. But even those gains weren’t able to speed overall truck turn times much at the top U.S. container port complex.

Chassis provider TRAC Intermodal and a technology provider have unveiled cloud-based software designed to allow intermodal equipment providers and motor carriers to automate billing and reconcile invoices.

Truck turn times at the Middle Harbor container terminal in Long Beach will improve greatly when the automated facility receives its first vessel April 7 because truck traffic will be completely separated from vessel operations, the company’s top executive said.

Efforts to improve chassis quality and availability in the Port of New York and New Jersey are inching forward despite the long delay in the launch of a common chassis pool, a Port Authority of New York and New Jersey official said.

Federal Maritime Commission Chairman Mario Cordero said he sympathizes with Los Angeles and Long Beach port users seeking less truck congestion and more transparency from the ports’ PierPass program for off-hours truck gates.

DP World Nhava Sheva, which last month fought a long battle to end slowdowns brought on by industrial unrest, has upgraded its automated gate systems, allowing much faster truck turnarounds at India’s biggest container gateway, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust.

A Port of Oakland efficiency task force pledged this week to work toward consistent truck wait times at container terminals of no more than 45 minutes for a single transaction and 90 minutes for a dual transaction, compared to wait times of two hours or longer that some truckers say they regularly experience.

Port truckers at the Port of New York and New Jersey will soon test ways to measure their wait times both inside and outside container terminal gates, providing visibility that could be the basis of an hourly surcharge to drayage customers.

Money, environmental and labor issues are complicating the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s effort to replace or retrofit old trucks with newer, less-polluting engines.

An analysis of federal data by the American Trucking Associations shows the truck-related fatality rate dropped in 2014 for the second straight year, and is 40 percent lower than it was a decade ago, despite increased travel by truckers and motorists on U.S. highways.

Long truck lines and gate congestion that flared up off-and-on last year have come back to haunt shippers and ocean carriers using Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, India’s biggest, public container handler, according to trade updates issued by local logistics services providers.

An environmental group criticized as “disgraceful” a plan by the Port of New York and New Jersey to relax a Jan. 1, 2017, deadline for replacement of more than 6,000 port drayage trucks with newer vehicles.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey plans to revise its clean-air plan by lifting a truck-replacement deadline that would have banned more than 6,000 drayage trucks from container terminals next Jan. 1.

If an uncertain global economy wasn’t enough for shippers and transportation providers, 2016 will be filled with major changes, from the massive container shipping weight mandate to liner consolidation. Other threats and opportunities will likely emerge during the year, but the 10 trends outlined here will definitely be in play and impact global supply chains. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

The time that truckers spend taking delivery of containers inside of marine terminals in Los Angeles is not nearly as long as the drayage industry believes, but there is still room for improvement, the president of PierPass said Tuesday.

Terminal operations in Los Angeles-Long Beach are back to normal after a year-long bout with congestion, chassis shortages and labor problems but average trucker turn times in the largest U.S. port complex remain stuck at the unacceptable level of about 90 minutes.

The California Labor Commissioner ruled in favor of 38 drivers who claimed that drayage company Pacific 9 Transportation misclassified them as independent contractors, awarding the drivers a total of $6.9 million in stolen wages, with an average individual award of $182,270.

U.S. Federal Maritime Chairman Mario Cordero said he's prepared to try to shut down the PierPass program at the Southern California ports via a federal injunction if an agency review of the program finds it to be in violation of the Shipping Act and terminal operators don’t move fast enough to address his concerns.

Drayage companies say truck turn times at PortMiami have lengthened in recent weeks, creating delays for shippers and reducing the number of trips that drivers can make in a day.

Cargomatic plans to launch the commercial version of its "free-flow" system for moving containers through congested ports by the end of the year, co-founder and president Brett Parker said.

The U.S Environmental Protection Agency has approved an $870,000 grant to help replace 25 older drayage trucks at the Port of Baltimore with cleaner-operating units with engines from the 2011 or later model years.

GCT Bayonne plans next month to launch the Port of New York and New Jersey’s first appointment system for trucks at terminals.

PierPass Inc. has been a lightening rod for criticism from cargo interests and truckers in Los Angeles-Long Beach for an alleged lack of transparency in the funding of night and weekend gates, but an initial Federal Maritime Commission review uncovered no glaring problems with the entity that manages the extended-gates program.

Truckers calling in Los Angeles-Long Beach are experiencing the lowest in-terminal service times since longshore labor issues in the fall of 2014 created the worst port congestion in more than a decade, according to the organization that represents the 13 container terminals in the largest U.S. port complex.

Reducing the amount of time that truckers spend waiting in line and being processed at North American marine terminals and off-dock facilities will have a larger impact on improving overall supply-chain efficiency than any other area, according to a study by a Vancouver transportation consultant.

Truckers at the Port of New York and New Jersey have begun applying for grants to help finance replacement of up to 80 of the several thousand older trucks that are set to be banned from port terminals in less than 14 months.

Old Dominion Freight Line is rebuilding its drayage model around company drivers to better align container hauling with its less-than-truckload business and avoid court battles over worker classification. The less-than-truckload carrier is also focusing more on East Coast ports.

Renewed flare-ups of drayage driver discontent at Port Metro Vancouver have revived concerns that trucker disruption could return to the port despite moves taken to quell unrest.

The Teamsters union is eying California, a state with drivers clamoring for representation and a regulatory climate sympathetic to work misclassification, as a launching pad for a national drayage organizing push.

The contentious debate over whether West Coast employers and dockworkers have the legal authority to perform safety inspections and repairs on chassis at marine terminals will most likely be resolved by a court, and it will be up to the chassis-leasing companies to initiate the legal action, according to freight forwarders and customs brokers.

Verbal abuse of harbor truck drivers at marine terminals by some members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union continues to happen despite efforts by the ports and the union to end the practice.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is “considering all options” for replacing thousands of older trucks in order to meet a fast-approaching deadline under the port’s clean-air plan, a spokesman said.

After months of delay, the Port of New York and New Jersey is moving to break a truck-replacement deadlock that motor carriers say threatens their continued ability to serve the U.S. East Coast’s busiest port.

The delicate balance that industrial real estate developers in Southern California’s Inland Empire hope to achieve between expansion of the warehouse and logistics sector and the desire of local communities to cap traffic congestion and pollution has come to a head with a proposed 2,600-acre project in Moreno Valley, California.

Manila’s two main terminals have launched a vehicle booking system that is expected to improve container flows into and out of the port as the Philippines’ peak shipping season approaches.

Truckers serving Conley Container Terminal at the port of Boston can use a newly-launched app to find out when containers are ready to be picked up, another sign of how technology is being tapped to improve port productivity