New chassis pool in Texas, Louisiana

New chassis pool in Texas, Louisiana Consolidated Chassis Management LLC said it has opened the Gulf Consolidated Chassis Pool at port and inland intermodal facilities in Texas and Louisiana.
   Sixteen ocean carriers and two leasing companies with a fleet of more than 30,000 chassis will participate in the pool along with inland rail terminals operated by the BNSF Railway, Union Pacific Railroad, CSX Intermodal, and Norfolk Southern Corp., as well as marine terminals operated by the Port of Houston Authority, Ports America Louisiana Inc. and New Orleans Terminal LLC.
   Cities serviced by the pool will include Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, Laredo and New Orleans.
   The pool is open to participation by any ocean carrier or their agents using the participating inland and marine terminals.
   The pool is the sixth in an emerging national program establishing chassis pools at port and inland intermodal locations. It is based on a cooperative pool model developed by the Ocean Carrier Equipment Management Association Inc. (OCEMA), an association of 20 major international ocean carriers. The pool is owned by Gulf Consolidated Chassis Pool LLC, a subsidiary of CCM, and is managed by Flexi-Van Leasing Inc.
   This cooperative aims to benefit carriers, terminals and other users of the Gulf area port and rail facilities through more efficient equipment utilization and reduced congestion. Eventually, it is expected the number of chassis required to be stored at terminals and nearby facilities can be reduced.
   Consolidated Chassis Management was formed in 2005 to develop and own chassis pools, and has more than 100,000 chassis under management at pools in Denver, Salt Lake City, Tampa, Memphis, Nashville, Jacksonville, Charleston, Savannah, Charlotte, Atlanta, Wilmington, Kansas City and St. Louis.