PierPass fees to increase from Monday

PierPass fees to increase from Monday    PierPass, the nonprofit company that collects extended hours gates fees for terminal operators in Los Angeles and Long Beach, said its fee hike will begin Monday, three weeks later than initially announced.
   In March, PierPass announced an increase in the amount charged for containers moving in or out of marine terminals Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., from $40 per TEU to $50.
   'Based on recent feedback from our customer base, PierPASS Inc. announced a modification to the schedule for the Traffic Mitigation Fee adjustment,' PierPass Chief Executive Officer Bruce Wargo said in a statement.
   The original start date was April 3.
   'The schedule change will provide an additional three weeks for members of the goods movement industry to adjust their rate structures,' Wargo added.
   The TMF adjustment comes after the first regular review of program costs since the off-peak extended hours plan was launched in July 2005. The review was conducted by the independent industrial engineering firm, The JWD Group.
   Meanwhile, in a National Industrial Transportation League-American Shipper-Cameron Group teleconference Thursday, a prominent shipper said PierPass adjustments should be better explained to the shipper community.
   'We were disappointed that we had little communication and advice on why the increase happened, said John Isbell, director corporate delivery logistics for Nike. 'We were all caught by surprise.'
   Isbell also said the justification for the increased PierPass — less revenue than anticipated to pay for night staffing of terminals — fees cannot continue forever.
   'The ironic aspect of this is the more (PierPass) gets used, the less revenue terminal operators get,' Isbell said. 'You can't continue to expect to get shippers to pay more money (for terminal inefficiencies).'