PierPass: No plans to cut hours

PierPass: No plans to cut hours    No further cutbacks are being planned in off-peak hour operations at Los Angeles and Long Beach marine terminals, even though the percentage of cargo moving during fee-free night and Saturday shifts has soared, PierPass President Bruce Wargo, president said last week.
   PierPass administers the OffPeak program that charges fees on cargo moving through the San Pedro Bay-area container terminals between the peak hours of 3 a.m. to 6 p.m. that are then used to fund night and Saturday hours at the terminal. The off-peak shifts are from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. and on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
   Wargo said the percentage of cargo moving during off-peak shifts has risen sharply in the past year to about 60 percent as shippers seek to trim costs by avoiding the fees charged by terminals during the day. In 2008, the quarterly percentage of cargo moving at off-peak hours ranged from 37 percent to 40 percent.
   PierPass charges a fee of $50 for 20-foot containers, $100 for other containers on cargo moving through the terminals during peak hours.

Wargo

   Wargo said representatives from the region’s terminals met in Long Beach on Friday and 'no terminal operator is planning changes to their terminal operations or hours.'
   Earlier in the week it was reported that Peter Keller, an executive vice president at NYK Line, remarked at a National Retail Federation show, that carriers should examine the program because of falling cargo volumes. NYK subsidiary Yusen Terminals operates a terminal in Los Angeles.
   Last spring, most terminal operators in Los Angeles and Long Beach decided to trim expenses by eliminating one off-peak shift. Most eliminated Saturday hours though some decided to eliminate one evening shift, and two decided to remain open all four nights and Saturday. That decision had sparked complaints from some shippers.
   'We always review the program to see if it has relevance and benefits, and pose questions to revisit our mission,' Wargo said. But on Friday he said not one terminal operator said they had plans to revise their schedules.
   'The night gates are something that people have come to expect,' Wargo said. While many Southern California businesses were already open at night before the OffPeak program began, he said even more have modified their operations so they can accept cargo during off-peak hours.
   He also noted that while cargo had dropped sharply last year, volumes had picked up in the last three months of the year and are at about the same level they were in 2005 when the OffPeak program began. ' Chris Dupin