Drayage

A Teamsters-affiliated group in Southern California on Friday said it halted picketing that began this week at facilities operated byPacer ACartage, Harbor Rail Transport, LACA Express, QTS and WinWin Logistics.

Industry officials in the Port of New York and New Jersey have agreed on a plan to create a “gray” chassis pool that would allow truckers to freely interchange chassis throughout the port as soon as early 2015.

The Port of Long Beach today will be the focus of attention by a Teamsters-affiliated group that is attempting to organize drayage drivers in Southern California.

The step Los Angeles and Long Beach marine terminal operators are taking to reduce congestion — keeping gates open continuously from early morning till late at night and adding shifts weekly -—will prove to be more effective than eliminating the PierPass traffic mitigation fee, as some groups are asking for, said John Cushing, president of PierPass Inc.

The Teamsters union Tuesday expanded its organizing efforts in Southern California to include drayage companies that service the intermodal rail sector, but striking truck drivers didn’t hamper cargo movements.

The Port of Virginia reported its seventh operating profit in eight months amid record volume in October, but CEO John F. Reinhart said more work is needed to reduce congestion and improve operations at terminals.

Harbor truck drivers in Southern California on Tuesday will add two more drayage companies to the three that they went on strike against Monday. The drivers, who have been striking drayage companies in Los Angeles-Long Beach on and off during much of the year, are claiming wage theft and misclassification, and are seeking to be organized by the Teamsters union.

In an effort to beat back congestion that has paralyzed the Southern California port complex, the Port of Long Beach in two weeks will open a temporary 30-acre site for empty containers aimed at freeing up chassis.

More than a hundred drayage drivers on Saturday refused to serve the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex, but in a downgrade of tensions they swapped pickets for information leaflets to distribute outside of marine terminals.

The deterioration in truck turn times at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach the past six months was due primarily to near-record container volumes at the ports and a dislocation of chassis A truck capacity crunch, labor slowdowns and a half-dozen other events were simply irritants that made the problem worse.

The Port Authority of New York-New Jersey will spend the next four months finding out from shippers, carriers and other port users how to reduce truck transport across the Hudson River and New York Harbor.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti today announced that drayage drivers from one company had agreed to stop striking at the Los Angeles-Long Long Beach port complex, and he was working to reach a similar conclusion with drivers from another company.

Southern California port truck drivers are picketing six Los Angeles-Long Beach marine terminals and the offices of two drayage companies this morning, but the ports report that cargo-handling is not being affected.

Harbor truckers in Southern California struggling with congestion at the largest U.S. port complex are asking federal regulators for temporary relief from some national truck driver hours of service regulations.

A committee of the Port of New York and New Jersey’s industrywide Council on Port Performance expects by year-end to decide between two competing chassis-pool models for “gray” chassis in the port.

The third quarter was 'transformational' for XPO Logistics, CEO Bradley S. Jacobs says. The question now is, will freight activity get even hotter in the fourth quarter?

The port of Long Beach said its truck turn times have been better than those at Los Angeles for at least four months.

Port Metro Vancouver said it’s on track to deliver on far-reaching reforms that ended a trucker strike that crippled Canada’s largest port for a month in March.

Long truck lines and a shortage of skilled labor plagued the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach Tuesday, adding to the ports’ already deep congestion problems and instilling fears among importers and exporters of potential gridlock at the largest U.S. port complex.

Expedited airport-to-airport carrier Forward Air acquired Multi-Modal Trucking and Multi-Modal Services of Indianapolis, expanding its intermodal drayage and transloading services.

Celadon Trucking put more drivers on U.S. highways in the last quarter, and those truckers brought back more revenue and profits for the carrier.

Port congestion has gotten so bad in Los Angeles-Long Beach that harbor truckers are imposing congestion surcharges of $50 to as much as $100 an hour, and retailers and other beneficial cargo owners are paying the extra charges if the alternative is that they will not get their containers that day.

Congestion continues to plague Los Angeles-Long Beach despite efforts by terminal operators to remain open longer and use all longshore labor at their disposal.

North Carolina grain exporter C.A. Perry & Son has become the first shipper to use Quick180’s new "Plus" service to guarantee export loads to truckers dropping empty import boxes at the company's plants.

Hamburg Süd said it has taken steps to combat significant delays in vessel arrivals and departures at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach as severe congestion at the largest port complex in the Americas has reached a new level of intensity.

Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka assured footwear importers meeting in Long Beach Tuesday that the Southern California ports have proposals that could provide some immediate relief to the worsening congestion problem in the harbor.

The executive director of the Port of Los Angeles said efforts to fix the congestion problem in Southern California will fall short until the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association negotiate a new contract.

Coverage on congestion at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex continued to interest JOC.com readers this past week, as what could be the worst gridlock to hit the largest port complex in the Americas continues.

Truckers or cargo interests who contend that terminal operators have unlawfully billed them for late retrieval of containers while the ports were congested have the right to file a complaint with the Federal Maritime Commission, according to a commission staff member.

The Port of Long Beach is temporarily giving container cargo owners three extra days of free time to keep import containers on the docks.

Quick180, a new online service that matches exporters needing a container with importers who have an unloaded box they want to get rid of, has signed Maersk Line as a participant.

British Columbia’s Port Metro Vancouver is in the home stretch of implementing its new truck licensing system, which aims to balance the number of registered trucks with the amount of available work in an effort to stabilize port operations.

Representatives of the port, shipper and labor communities agree that Los Angeles and Long Beach must reduce congestion and improve productivity at marine terminals, but they differ on how to reach those goals.

Transportation specialists are urging the Los Angeles and Long Beach port authorities to rise above their landlord status and initiate immediate changes to improve truck turn times, or risk a total meltdown in the harbor.

An industry committee hopes to agree by mid-2015 on a plan for interchangeable “gray” chassis in the Port of New York and New Jersey, a port authority official said.

RoadOne Intermodal Logistics is looking for the right formula to attract more truck drivers and keep them.

Frustrated by port congestion and chassis shortages, drayage drivers increasingly are looking for other jobs — both in and out of trucking.

Events on the U.S. West Coast dominated on JOC.com this past week, as labor negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association could finally be heating up. Five of the Top 10 stories on JOC.com in the past week focused on the issue.