Truck terminals in focus as SoCal volumes rise

Truck terminals in focus as SoCal volumes rise    Robust container volumes through Southern California ports in 2010 have brought attention back to the issue of drayage trucks and container terminals, according to an official with the company that administers a fee collection program in the ports.
   Bruce Wargo, president of PierPass, the nonprofit entity set up to collect fees on trucks that use daytime weekday gates at the two ports, also told American Shipper Wednesday that four to six terminals in the San Pedro Bay port complex will be dropping Saturday shifts from now until April as vessel calls subside in the post-Lunar New Year season.
   “It was a difficult time in 2009,” Wargo said. “The terminals were cost conscious. But the cargo came back in 2010, and the terminals responded to those cargo volumes.”

Wargo

   Wargo said terminal operators in the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles has 26 percent higher labor costs in 2010 “in direct response to increased cargo volumes. That extra labor had a direct effect on truck waiting times in the second half of 2010.”
   Wargo also pointed to increased constructive discussion among the terminals, truckers, ports and shippers through a series of stakeholder meetings PierPass has organized.
   “When we get truckers in front of the terminal operators and cargo owners at same time, it creates a more honest atmosphere,” he said. “Bringing them into the dialogue at that level creates a better forum for discussing these things.”
   He said the meetings are particularly valuable from the perspective of dispelling anecdotal issues that are often not applicable to the entire industry. PierPass, aside from studying truck turn times and transactions per day, is also about to measure waiting times for trucks outside terminal gates using GPS technology.
   “If we have some obvious aspects of business that these studies reveal, it’s harder to deny the scientific part,” he said. “Bringing these stakeholders in gets rid of some of the anecdotal issues and fosters an honest dialogue. Truckers are in some cases not in control of their own destinies. Some empowerment in this group can give them more control. It’s a good forum to share data and come away with best practices.”
   Wargo said PierPass is striving to be more proactive and transparent, hence a new, blog-style Web site with monthly updates on performance metrics. He said in December 22 percent of trucks made five transactions per day and 26 percent made four or more. In November, the Long Beach-based Harbor Trucking Association toldAmerican Shipper that owner-operator drayage drivers needed three roundtrips, or six “transactions,” in order to be able to meet costs and make a decent living.
   Wargo said Wednesday that trucks are averaging about 1.4 transactions per terminal trip (two being ideal since it would mean a truck is dropping off one container and picking up another).
   “The number of transactions is critical to trucking companies,” he said. “Of course, how many transactions a truck can make depends on the business that companies have. If a truck is hauling from here 60 miles away to Riverside, it might only get two moves per day. To Carson, it might get six or seven moves. It's a rate-driven discussion. And it’s more complicated because you have a population of 8,000 trucks, 4,000 of which are regular callers, and cargo volumes fluctuate. It sounds simple, but peel back onion skin and it gets more complicated.” ' Eric Johnson