Chassis pool planned for Chicago, Ohio Valley

Chassis pool planned for Chicago, Ohio Valley Container Chassis Management, which has established five chassis pools around the country, is planning an expansion into Chicago and the upper Ohio Valley region this spring.
   Peter Keller, president of NYK Line (North America) Inc. and chairman of the CCM board of directors, said the pool should be fully functional by the first or second quarter.
   He said it will be one of the more challenging pools the group has undertaken because of the large number of railheads and container yards in the region and the large flow of chassis between widely separated geographic locations in the Midwest.
   Keller said details of the proposed pool still had to be worked out, but the CCM newsletter said the proposed scope included 29 ramps with 14 in Chicago, and the remainder being scattered in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Indianapolis and Louisville.
   Chassis pools reduce costs for steamship lines by allowing them to share common equipment.
   Since its founding in 2006, CCM has founded five chassis pools in South Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports, southeastern and southwestern U.S. inland locations, the Denver/Salt Lake City Region and the lower Midwest around Kansas City and St. Louis.
   The newsletter projects that with the Chicago pool the number of chassis in CCM pools should grow from about 100,000 to 125,000-150,000 by the end of 2009.
   Keller said the group is likely to look at establishing pools in the Pacific Northwest and at ports north of Norfolk, Va. as future projects.