Two Initiatives Unveiled to Cut Port Congestion

This story appears in the June 30 print edition of Transport Topics.

Efforts to cut congestion for port truckers could be gaining momentum, based on two developments last week.

First, a June 25 report by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey outlined 23 recommendations to speed cargo movement, with a focus on trucking. The port formed a task force after severe winter weather, communication system breakdowns and shortages of labor and equipment combined to disrupt operations earlier this year.

“Many of the problems experienced were system problems involving multiple stakeholders,” said the report from the bistate agency that oversees the third-largest U.S. port. “No one entity in the port could fix these issues alone.”

Also last week, Mario Cordero, chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission, directed the agency’s staff to review how they might help truckers deal with port-related issues nationwide.

Chassis issues are “very much exacerbating the search for port congestion solutions,” said Curtis Whalen, executive director of American Trucking Associations’ Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference. Congestion at truck gates and in terminals reduces available driving time, limiting productivity and earning power, he said.

The N.Y.-N.J. report’s five highest-priority recommendations included an improved chassis management system, wider use of radio frequency identification tags to measure truck movements and better communications systems.

Another high-priority recommendation was more effective use of chassis through pools, with six types of pool structures as options.

Also in the top group was the creation of a truck management system to oversee gate-arrival times that are skewed toward early morning hours.

Next in order of importance were six recommendations, including steps to provide more efficient truck moves and methods to prevent truckers from being charged for using equipment stuck on the docks.

The other 12 recommendations included use of touch pads to reduce delays at entry gates and a container fee program to fund modernization of the port trucking fleet.

About 5,000 New York-area port trucks do not meet 2007 EPA emissions requirements, the report said, estimating the cost of replacing that equipment at nearly $250 million.

Until chassis issues are addressed, Whalen said, congestion reduction steps won’t work well because truckers can’t efficiently pick up equipment in terminals.

Whalen and Alex Cherin, executive director of the Harbor Trucking Association in Southern California, appeared before FMC on June 18 to outline the consequences of congestion on motor carriers.

Whalen said FMC’s involvement could help to resolve chassis condition and use issues that have vexed truckers for more than a decade.

 “The evolving multimodal chassis ownership and deployment model obviously presents federal challenges,” the ATA official said. “We believe the commission could fill that void and exercise a very constructive role in identifying problems and facilitating discussions.”

FMC is the third federal agency to assess port trucking, where delays and congestion cost truckers $348 million a year, based on a study by Tioga Group.

One of the other groups is the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, whose rules include a requirement that chassis providers give truckers reliable equipment.

In addition, the Surface Transportation Board allowed the creation of the North American Chassis Pool Cooperative last year.

That business was created by intermodal truckers to cope with changing chassis sourcing strategies in the wake of ocean carriers’ withdrawal from that function.

 “We recommend the commission undertake an oversight initiative to facilitate — help define and guide the new chassis supply and deployment model,” Whalen said.

One reason, he said, is that ocean carriers under FMC’s oversight still play a key role in the chassis process, often contracting directly with truckers to deliver international cargo.

Cordero’s direction does not mean that the agency has decided to become formally involved in port issues, FMC Secretary Karen Gregory told Transport Topics.

“The importance of establishing equitable and realistic ‘excessive’ trucking wait time tariffs is further underscored by the impacts of the FMCSA’s hours-of-service restrictions,” Whalen said.

Whalen was referring to FMC’s power to set standards for allowable truck waiting time.