L.A.-Long Beach after-hours terminal gate program hits milestone

L.A.-Long Beach after-hours terminal gate program hits milestone    Long Beach-based PierPASS Inc. said Monday its off-peak after-hours marine terminal gate program has diverted more than 5 million truck trips from peak daytime traffic since the program’s start in July 2005.
   The program claims to eliminate gate congestions at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, reduce gridlock on area freeways and curtailed air pollution from idling traffic. On average, the program claims to be shifting 60,000 truck trips a week from the freeways during busy commuting hours, reducing congestion and benefiting local air quality.
   The program, operated by the non-profit PierPASS Inc., charges cargo owners a $50 per TEU fee    ($100 for containers more than 20 feet long) for daytime gate usage, which then is used to support five after-hours gate shifts at night and on weekends. The PierPASS system was developed by marine terminal operators in the two ports.
   In 2006, more than 2.9 million truck trips used gates open due to the off-peak program. According to PierPass, this represents more than 13,000 trucks per off-peak shift, or about 36 percent of all container traffic at the ports.
   Together, the adjacent ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are the fifth-busiest container port complex in the world, handling more than 40 percent of the nation’s total import traffic and 24 percent of its total exports.