WEST COAST WATERFRONT COALITION TO PROPOSE EXTENDED GATE HOURS TEST

FRANS MAAS GROUP EXPANDS ITS LOGISTICS NETWORK    The West Coast Waterfront Coalition will meet in Washington today to develop a plan for a six-month trial to extend gate hours at some terminals in the Southern California ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.
   The coalition, a group of about 50 shippers and shipper groups, was created late last year to improve the flow of cargo through California’s bustling seaports. Some of its members are Wal-Mart, Target Corp., Toyota Motor Sales, the Agriculture Ocean Transportation Coalition (AgOTC) and the International Mass Retail Association.
   Extended gate hours have been tried before without much success. Terminals often blame shippers for failure to commit to them. Truckers and labor have also shown half-hearted commitment to the concept.
   The coalition calls for opening terminal gates three hours earlier in the morning and keeping them operating an additional three hours in the evening. The coalition believes that in the long run warehouse operators, truckers and importers will become used to operating within the longer gate hours. The hope is that extended gate hours will help ease congestion through the ports.
   “It won’t happen overnight, but I think it can done,” said Robin Lanier, executive director of the West Coast Waterfront Coalition to shippers of the AgOTC in San Francisco Friday.