Drayage

Port of Oakland managers were bracing for possible trouble Tuesday morning, uncertain whether protesting truckers who shut much of the port down on Monday would return to disrupt operations for a second day.

It’s going to be some time before ocean carriers, trucking companies and equipment owners build a new chassis model as ship lines retreat from the business of providing the wheeled intermodal equipment. During the transition, technology providers such as IAS are providing ocean carriers, motor carriers and chassis owners with the capabilities to operate.

Five years after the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach launched the industry’s most comprehensive clean-truck program, a father-son driver team became the first independent contractors to purchase an environmentally compliant truck off of lease.

Marine terminals have measures at their disposal to improve gate times and eliminate long truck queues, but this increased productivity must be paid for by one or more parties to the transaction, according to transportation consultants.

Port of Oakland Executive Director Chris Lytle will meet with harbor truckers, terminal operators and other stakeholders Thursday in an attempt to head off a possible week-long disruption threatened by owner-operators.

The intermodal industry in the coming years will have to learn to live with at least several different chassis models, but one thing for certain is that the cost of handling containers at railyards will increase.

A prominent trucking industry executive warned that operational changes at rail ramps and other inland locations because of the accelerating exit of ocean carriers from the chassis business are placing added stress on the fragile intermodal drayage industry.

What do flight simulator technicians, hearse drivers, cheese cooks and yogurt processors, locomotive engineers and graphic artists have in common with truck drivers? Depending on whom they work for, they all may be Teamsters.

The Teamsters’ game plan to organize owner-operator drayage carriers is much more diverse than it was five years ago, when the union threw its weight behind the Port of Los Angeles’s clean trucks plan, beginning its foray to organize harbor truck drivers, some of the lowest-paid workers in the transportation industry.

Prior to federal deregulation of the trucking industry in 1980, relatively few large motor carriers dominated harbor drayage, and most of those companies had Teamsters drivers. After deregulation, thousands of smaller trucking companies entered harbor trucking. In the cutthroat-pricing environment that evolved, trucking companies relied increasingly on independent contractors to haul containers to and from the ports.

RoadOne IntermodaLogistics expanded its drayage and intermodal brokerage network by acquiring drayage operator Intermodal Inc.

When Bill Shea joined DirectChassisLink as CEO 18 months ago, he saw a need for the chassis lessor to broaden its customer base, seek additional distribution channels and reduce costs.

Motor carriers serving New York Container Terminal on Staten Island have begun receiving payments to offset increases in tolls on bridges from New Jersey.

Harbor truck drivers returned to their jobs late Tuesday after a 24-hour strike at the Green Fleet Systems warehouse in Southern California. The drivers, who were supported by the Teamsters union, said they were protesting the company’s attempts to prevent them from organizing.

After five years and numerous appeals, the American Trucking Associations’ lawsuit challenging certain provisions of the Port of Los Angeles clean-truck plan has been put to rest, with harbor trucking interests scoring a powerful victory.

The Port of Oakland was operating smoothly Thursday, with no sign of protesting truckers, and no delays at marine terminal gates. Chris Lytle, Oakland’s executive director, intends to do everything possible to maintain fluid operations after weeks of sporadic work stoppages by longshoremen and protests by harbor truckers over slow turn times and pending environmental requirements.

The International Longshoremen’s Association said it is in “full solidarity” with owner-operator container haulers who have suffered “undue hardship” during this summer’s operational delays at the Port of New York and New Jersey.

Marine terminal gates at the Port of Oakland were beginning to reopen at noon Monday following a morning-long blockade by owner-operator truck drivers protesting slow turn times at marine terminals.

This summer’s congestion at New York-New Jersey terminals has renewed talk of extended hours for terminal gates that normally operate weekdays from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Roadrunner Transportation Systems has acquired certain assets of the U.S. Southeast drayage division of Transport Corp. of America, an intermodal transportation provider in the Southeast, for about $1.2 million.

The International Longshoremen’s Association has served notice that it will insist on retaining its jurisdiction over chassis that truckers lease from equipment providers that have historically used ILA labor for maintenance and repair.

Drayage companies in the Port of New York and New Jersey are asking container lines to waive per-diem charges for late return of containers and chassis to congested terminals, and are threatening to challenge per-diem bills caused by the terminals’ delays.

An increasing volume of cargo is being delayed by late deliveries or rolled over as the peak season comes into full force, according to Drewry Maritime Research.

This summer’s delays at New York-New Jersey’s container terminals are spurring the port’s diverse factions to work together on short-term and long-term solutions to difficult issues, Rick Larrabee, director of port commerce at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said.

A program to require radio-frequency identification tags on trucks serving container terminals at the Port of New York and New Jersey will go into effect Aug. 19.

Two months of operational delays are straining the capacity and finances of drayage operators throughout the Port of New York and New Jersey. Carl Frederick, co-owner of Container Transport Services, said he's never seen anything quite like it.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., have introduced Senate and House bills to allow local governments to ban high-polluting trucks from ports.

Port of Oakland executives are stepping up their efforts to reduce the congestion at marine terminals that has made life miserable for harbor truckers during much of July.

This summer’s delays at the Port of New York and New Jersey have resulted from labor shortages and low productivity at container terminals, not from a shortage of trucking capacity, a leader in the port drayage community said.

New York Container Terminal and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have agreed on a plan to offset the impact of bridge toll increases that have raised truckers’ costs and reduced cargo volume at the Staten Island terminal.

Drayage industry leaders say the Port of New York and New Jersey faces the loss of cargo to rival gateways unless it can end delays that have produced seven consecutive weeks of long truck lines outside container terminals.

Transportation group PTA Holdings plans to acquire a Midwestern intermodal trucking company, the company said July 22.

Container terminal officials in the Port of New York and New Jersey said they’re sensitive to port truckers’ problems and are working to eliminate delays and congestion aggravated by volume shifts and seasonal labor shortages at the East Coast’s busiest port.

Slowdowns by container truck drivers over wage increases threaten to disrupt normal operations at the APM Terminals facility in India’s Port of Jawaharlal Nehru (Nhava Sheva).

Direct ChassisLink, an intermodal marine chassis provider in North America, has acquired Hyundai Merchant Marine’s U.S. chassis fleet, comprising more than 23,000 chassis...

Port drayage companies say they’re frustrated with a third consecutive week of delays that have caused long truck lines at Port of New York and New Jersey container terminals.

Maher Terminals said a fifth ship has been diverted to a nearby terminal as the Port of New York and New Jersey’s largest container facility struggles with congestion and delays for a second week.