CBP expands cargo service at SW land ports

CBP expands cargo service at SW land ports Companies that ship products to or from Mexico are expecting faster transit times after U.S. Customs officials recently extended the hours of service for cargo lanes at several Southwest ports of entry.
   The Customs and Border Protection compound in El Paso is open for commercial traffic 24 hours per day, Monday through Friday, with continuous operation on through 4 p.m. Saturday as of Nov. 3. The same schedule will begin at the World Trade Bridge in Laredo on Jan. 5. The agency added two extra hours to its operating schedule at the Otay Mesa, Calif., border crossing on Oct. 20 and has agreed to expand service by two hours at the Nogales, Ariz., port during the peak agriculture season, beginning Jan. 1.
      In addition, the Calexico, Calif. port will accept bulk shipments and FAST loads for an additional 2 hours per day.    Port officials have emphasized that they intend to remain open until all trucks completing export processing in Mexico have been cleared.
   Implemented at the request of the trade community, the new schedule is considered a stopgap measure to expand the capacity of aging border facilities straining to process growing volumes of passenger and commercial traffic. Agricultural and merchandise shippers say the congestion at ports of entry costs money and hurts business.

Basham

   “As the volume grows and our capacity doesn’t grow commensurately, it’s going to be a huge problem,” CBP Commissioner Ralph Basham said at a roundtable interview with reporters.
   CBP has often adjusted service hours at border crossings for brief periods only to revert to normal hours due to lack of staffing or perceived usage. Thomas Winkowski, assistant commissioner for field operations, assured trade and transportation interests that this time the test will be given enough time to succeed.
   “We’re going to gauge the volumes. It’s not just going to be a three-month look and go back to the old schedule if volumes don’t materialize,” he said Oct. 29 at the agency’s Trade Symposium in Washington.
   “We understand that this is a major, major business change. You just don’t go out and raise the flag and say, ‘We’re open,’ and then take it down and say all of a sudden, ‘We haven’t had that much traffic.’ “
      The new hours of service were made possible through extensive coordination with Mexican Customs and industry because they had to change their border compound schedules and business practices as well to move cargo at off-peak hours, Winkowski said.
   CBP will conduct a thorough evaluation, along with truckers, customs brokers and shippers, to see if the new hours of service are being fully utilized and where adjustments can be made without impacting trade, he said. That may mean a 24-hour operation, for example, may only require staffing for 20 hours.
   “We’ve got to be careful that we just don’t have places open with no vehicles. That’s not good government,' Winkowski said. “But at the same time, I’ve assured the trade community that we’re not going to run in and pull the plug because you didn’t fill the void. I understand it takes time” for business to adjust their operations.
   The port directors at the four ports have been given additional resources for overtime pay so that they have the flexibility to staff the cargo lanes during the extended hours, he said.
   Further operational improvements along the borders are possible too because Congress gave CBP funding in the current fiscal year for almost 1,500 additional officers, including 100 agricultural specialists.
   Meanwhile, CBP faces challenges meeting an ever-expanding list of new security and trade missions at facilities that are 42 years old on average and long ago met their design capacities. The compounds also were never intended to house new technologies such as radiation portal monitors and license plate readers that also alter traffic patterns.
   CBP officials say they need $5 billion to modernize facilities on the northern and southern borders. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, last March introduced a bill that would give the agency $1 billion per year over five years for infrastructure improvements as well as fund the hiring of 5,000 CBP officers, 1,200 agriculture specialists and 350 support personnel.
   Winkowski said Congress is beginning to understand part of the problem, but that the infrastructure challenge extends beyond the facility to inadequate roads leading in and out of them.
   “When they were talking about this $700 billion bailout, I was saying, ‘Can you make it $705?’ ” Winkowski quipped, referring to the government’s rescue plan for Wall Street. ' Eric Kulisch