Poor utilization exacerbates non-availability of chassis in SoCal

A snapshot of chassis activity in L.A.-Long Beach port district underscores problems truckers have finding equipment to move containers.    A major contributor to the current port congestion in Southern California is a shortage of chassis, but statistics provided by Flexi-Van Leasing suggest the supply challenge has more to do with equipment utilization than with a shortage in absolute terms.
   Utilization rates for the L.A. Basin Pool — which contains 36,800 wheeled frames for containers owned by Flexi-Van, China Shipping and TRAC Intermodal — have sharply declined, year-over-year, meaning many units are sitting idle for various reasons. 
   Flexi-Van manages the pool, which includes auditing the chassis usage.
   The dwell time for containers sitting on a chassis at a rail or marine terminal was up 19.6 percent in October compared to the same month in 2013. On-street dwell time, which refers to chassis held by motor carriers or cargo owners at terminals and distribution centers, was up 25 percent, year-over-year, in October, with almost half the chassis held by customers between six and 30 days.
   One of the complaints made by logistics professionals in Southern California is that shippers are hording chassis to ensure they have equipment when needed.
   The status of the LABP Pool’s fleet on Nov. 11 provides a snapshot into the problems facing supply chains using the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
   On that day, 2,029 chassis, or 6 percent of the fleet, was out of service waiting for repairs, as reported to Flexi-Van by marine terminals.
   Another 3,620 units (10 percent) were under load at a terminal. Why so many chassis are occupied and not moving is unclear, but it could be because some terminals are still opting to store boxes on wheels instead of stacks, or they are waiting to be hauled to rail yards where there are shortages of rail cars.
   The number of bare chassis that had been idle from 15 to 59 days at 11 different facilities was 2,255, and another 2,189 chassis had been stored there for more than 60 days. The combined number of idle chassis represents 14.9 percent of the total fleet.
   On Nov. 17, the numbers were even higher, with 4,714 bare chassis, or 15.7 percent of the fleet, idle for more than 15 days.
   The bare chassis figures include units that are out of service. 
   Phillip Connors, executive vice president of Flexi-Van, said it is difficult to determine whether the chassis inactivity is related to the level of longshoremen working the container yards, tight truck capacity or other reasons.
   There about 100,000 container chassis in the San Pedro Bay region, according to most industry estimates.
   The inability to easily hook up to a wheeled frame and pick up or discharge an ocean container at a terminal is severely denting the productivity of port shuttle drivers. Part of the problem is an imbalance in the supply, with extra chassis at one terminal when demand is at another terminal where a big ship has called because of a change in service structure. Truckers are having to drive further to secure a chassis or wait in long lines at terminals to drop or get a chassis, which cuts into their daily driving limit.
   The chassis market is still trying to settle on a sustainable model after ocean carriers divested the bulk of their chassis fleets. Leasing companies such as Flexi, TRAC and Direct ChassisLink Inc. (DCLI) acquired much of the equipment, but many of the deals included provisions that the equipment be dedicated to haul boxes for the carrier that sold the equipment. That has perpetuated the transactional nature of chassis usage whereby a truck driver has to drop a container at one terminal, and then go to another depot to get a separate chassis before entering another terminal for new load.
   In September, Flexi-Van and DCLI received permission from federal regulators to enter into a chassis-use agreement at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach allowing for the establishment of “gray” chassis pool and the interchange of chassis across multiple pools throughout the port complex. The pool-of-pools is designed to treat equipment in a neutral manner.
   DCLI manages the GACP Pool, which includes equipment for the G6 Alliance of ocean carriers.