Long Beach empty yard morphs into relay depot

The port has extended the life of an emergency container yard an extra six months and changed its mission.    The Port of Long Beach has extended the life of an emergency container yard an extra six months and changed its mission. 
   In December, Pasha Stevedoring & Terminals began operating a temporary depot for storage of empty containers on vacant land at Pier S in an effort to reduce long delays for drayage drivers transferring loads at marine terminals. The 30-acre yard was intended to free up precious space within terminals for loaded containers and alleviate a shortage of chassis by allowing drivers to drop empties on their way to retrieve loaded import boxes.
   Many terminals told drivers at the time that they couldn’t come in their facilities with empties. Large cargo owners, in turn, were forced to house the empties at distribution centers, which reduces space for receiving containers loaded with imported merchandise.  
   The empty yard was designed to allow trucking companies to make quick turns, with traffic patterns and staging areas that enable a smooth traffic flow. Drivers would retain their chassis and return to the same terminal that accepts those chassis, rather than calling multiple terminals and having to swap out the chassis each time. Pasha charges $5 a day for storage.
   But the facility never caught on because the concept was new and labor turmoil with dock workers caused so much gridlock that many truckers stayed away until the situation was resolved, port spokesmen said. Drayage trucking companies had to first work out arrangements with ocean carriers to drop their empty boxes at the yard, and with ships not being loaded at night or weekends for several weeks, there was less incentive to use the depot, they said.
   This week the Long Beach Harbor Commission extended the contract for the depot to help the port community work its way through the backlog of cargo caused by the port slowdown. In late February, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and employers, represented by Pacific Maritime Association, reached a tentative agreement, allowing port operations on the West Coast to return to normal.
   The facility will now function as a “drop yard” similar to one recently opened at the Port of Los Angeles and operated by Total Transportation Services Inc. and Pasha. The idea is for shuttle trucks to pull containers out of terminals and leave them at the yard on chassis for other trucks to retrieve for delivery to distribution centers throughout the metropolitan area. Truckers are expected to be able to make several more trips per day in and out of terminals and between the relay yard and customers.
   The Los Angeles depot facilitates a new “free-flow” scheme being implemented by some terminals and large beneficial cargo owners under which all containers for a single shipper are segregated in single section when they come off the ship and truckers pick up the first box off the stack, rather than requiring the terminal to hunt down a specific container.
   The Long Beach congestion yard will continue to accept empties, but a new L.A.-Long Beach “gray” chassis pool launched March 1 could alleviate some of the chassis interchange problems of the past and allow truckers to hold onto the same chassis regardless of which terminal they visit.