As part of our monthly newsletters we provide a summary of the latest transaction data from marine terminal operators (MTOs) at the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach. Below please find data from the month of October 2013.
Average in-terminal turn time:
35.4 minutes day shift
39.6 minutes night shift
For comparison, the average in-terminal turn time in September 2013 was 36.4 minutes for the day shift and 41.1 minutes for the night shift.
In-terminal turn time is the average amount of time a truck is inside a terminal to complete a transaction. Truck activity information is derived from RFID data, and excludes lunch hour, breaks and trouble tickets. Turn time at individual terminals will vary depending on time of day and other factors.
Frequent callers* average moves per day:
11% trucks 5 or moves per day
18% trucks 4 moves per day
29% trucks 3 moves per day
25% trucks 2 moves per day
17% trucks 1 move per day
*The ports define frequent callers as trucks making one or more moves per weekday. Average moves per day by frequent callers tells us how many moves a truck can make if it is working every day. In October 2013, 29 percent of frequent callers made four or more moves per day.
Day vs. Night Gates:
Average daily number of day gate moves: 15,057
Average daily number of night gate moves: 18,206
Number of day shifts open: 27
Number of night shifts open: 17
The number of unique trucks calling on the ports in October was 11,159.
Note:
Terminals were closed for the second shift on Oct. 3 for an ILWU Stop Work meeting.
To increase understanding of the truck turn time issue at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, PierPass has created two important new pieces of content.
The first is a video, “A Day in the Life of the Terminal Gates at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach,” available above and through this link: http://youtu.be/dPvYq4rZI00
The second is an op-ed article that was published November 7 in the Journal of Commerce, available below and through this link: http://goo.gl/b9EWTu
The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have made tremendous strides in accelerating container movement in and out of the marine terminals. Most significantly, night and Saturday off-peak shifts run by PierPass at the 13 port terminals now handle as many as 17,000 container moves per shift compared with less than 15,000 for the average day shift — leaving the gridlock of 2004 a fast-fading memory.
Our terminals are some of the busiest and most productive in the world. In fact, Long Beach was tied for North America’s most productive port in a July 2013 Journal of Commerce report. Together, the two adjacent ports handle about 40 percent of all U.S. imports, while retaining plenty of spare capacity to handle volume growth.
Despite all that, some trucking interests continue to traffic in misinformation about productivity at the ports. At a recent meeting of the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners, for example, representatives of the trucking community said typical turn times are two or three hours. With all due respect, that is simply false.
Here are the facts: The average in-terminal turn time across the 13 terminals in the ports during September 2013 was 36.4 minutes during day shifts and 41.1 minutes during night shifts, according to RFID tracking data. Adding 20 minutes for the average queue outside the gates, the turn takes an hour.
In 2011, the ports, terminals and trucking community published a comprehensive turn time study at the ports using GPS to track trucks. The study found:
The median wait time outside the gates was 20 minutes.
Only 9 percent of waits in queues outside the gates were more than an hour.
Only 3 percent of visits took three hours or more, including queue time and terminal time.
No system can eliminate all lines. From congested freeways during rush hour to movie ticket queues on a Friday night, lines form when everyone tries to use the same infrastructure at the same time. Container terminals are no different.
Every day, some trucks line up as much as 90 minutes before the gates open for the day and night shifts, guaranteeing themselves a long wait and creating a backlog. It’s like showing up at a restaurant 90 minutes before it opens and then complaining about the long wait. Trucks can avoid the longest lines of the day by avoiding the start of the shifts.
Those backlogs clear up quickly once the gates open. In fact, many terminals hire extra labor to open the morning and night gates an hour early — often at 7 a.m. rather than 8 a.m., and at 5 p.m. rather than 6 p.m.
During much of the day and night shifts, there is little congestion at the terminals. Although conditions vary, truckers can typically find the shortest lines by arriving from 9 a.m. to noon, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. That’s 10 hours a day when there are virtually no lines to enter the terminal gates.
To help trucking companies gauge congestion levels and make informed decisions on when to send drivers, PierPass has added live camera feeds of terminal gates to our Web site, pierpass.org. These feeds typically get more than 2,000 views a day.
In another initiative to keep trucks moving quickly, we are working with terminals and trucking companies to reduce the number of transaction problems. These problems — exceptions from normal processes that result in the issuance of “trouble tickets” — on average add about an hour to the turn time, according to a 2011 report by the National Cooperative Freight Research Program, and are responsible for many of the transactions that take the most time. Less-experienced drivers and companies that don’t serve the port regularly receive trouble tickets much more frequently, the NCFRP found.
Among a variety of causes, transaction problems happen commonly when truckers arrive to pick up import containers that are on hold. Containers can be put on hold for a variety of reasons, including U.S. Customs release, agricultural inspection and unpaid steamship charges or traffic-mitigation fees. Another common trouble ticket cause is when trucks deliver export containers with incorrect booking number information.
In these and other cases, trucking companies can avoid trouble tickets by checking the terminals’ online systems before prematurely sending a truck to the gates. APL Terminal in Los Angeles estimates that 65 percent of all trouble tickets can be prevented by checking online before sending a truck to the terminal.
We understand and share truck drivers’ desire to keep traffic moving as quickly as possible. But we must acknowledge the faulty logic behind the idea that truckers could move more containers and earn more money if turn times were faster. All import and export containers at the ports already are being picked up and delivered. There are no extra containers waiting to be picked up. The only ways truckers can get more turns is by increasing overall cargo volume or reducing the number of trucks.
This isn’t to say terminals don’t want to reduce turn times. In fact, we need to find ways to speed container movement if we’re going to be able to handle the increased cargo volume expected by 2020. The terminals are actively evaluating ways to change port processes to increase productivity. Watch this space.
As part of our monthly newsletters we provide a summary of the latest transaction data from marine terminal operators (MTOs) at the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach. Below please find data from the month of September 2013.
Average in-terminal turn time:
36.4 minutes day shift
41.1 minutes night shift
For comparison, the average in-terminal turn time in August 2013 was 39.6 minutes for the day shift and 40.3 minutes for the night shift.
In-terminal turn time is the average amount of time a truck is inside a terminal to complete a transaction. Truck activity information is derived from RFID data, and excludes lunch hour, breaks and trouble tickets. Turn time at individual terminals will vary depending on time of day and other factors.
Frequent callers* average moves per day:
13% trucks 5 or moves per day
20% trucks 4 moves per day
28% trucks 3 moves per day
22% trucks 2 moves per day
17% trucks 1 move per day
*The ports define frequent callers as trucks making one or more moves per weekday. Average moves per day by frequent callers tells us how many moves a truck can make if it is working every day. In September 2013, 33 percent of frequent callers made four or more moves per day.
Day vs. Night Gates:
Average daily number of day gate moves: 15,514
Average daily number of night gate moves: 17,785
Number of day shifts open: 24
Number of night shifts open: 16
The number of unique trucks calling on the ports in September was 10,820.
Note:
Terminals were closed for the Labor Day holiday on September 2.
As part of our monthly newsletters we provide a summary of the latest transaction data from marine terminal operators (MTOs) at the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach. Below please find data from the month of August 2013.
Average in-terminal turn time:
39.6 minutes day shift
40.3 minutes night shift
For comparison, the average in-terminal turn time in July 2013 was 40.9 minutes for the day shift and 41.3 minutes for the night shift.
In-terminal turn time is the average amount of time a truck is inside a terminal to complete a transaction. Truck activity information is derived from RFID data, and excludes lunch hour, breaks and trouble tickets. Turn time at individual terminals will vary depending on time of day and other factors.
Frequent callers* average moves per day:
12% trucks 5 or moves per day
19% trucks 4 moves per day
29% trucks 3 moves per day
23% trucks 2 moves per day
17% trucks 1 move per day
*The ports define frequent callers as trucks making one or more moves per weekday. Average moves per day by frequent callers tells us how many moves a truck can make if it is working every day. In August 2013, 31 percent of frequent callers made four or more moves per day.
Day vs. Night Gates:
Average daily number of day gate moves: 14,912
Average daily number of night gate moves: 17,342
Number of day shifts open: 27
Number of night shifts open: 16
The number of unique trucks calling on the ports in August was 10,896.
Note:
Terminals were closed one night shift for an ILWU Stop Work Meeting.
As part of our monthly newsletters we provide a summary of the latest transaction data from marine terminal operators (MTOs) at the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach. Below please find data from the month of July 2013.
Truck activity information is derived from RFID data.
Average in-terminal turn time:
40.9 minutes day shift
41.3 minutes night shift
(Excluding lunch hour, breaks and trouble tickets)
In-terminal turn time is the average amount of time a truck is inside a terminal to complete a transaction. Turn time at individual terminals will vary depending on time of day and other factors. The average in-terminal turn time in June 2013 was 36.4 minutes for the day shift and 38.7 minutes for the night shift.
Frequent callers* average moves per day:
14% trucks 5 or moves per day
20% trucks 4 moves per day
28% trucks 3 moves per day
22% trucks 2 moves per day
16% trucks 1 move per day
*The ports define frequent callers as trucks making one or more moves per weekday. Average moves per day by frequent callers tells us how many moves a truck can make if it is working every day. In July 2013, 34 percent of frequent callers made four or more moves per day.
Day vs. Night Gates:
Average daily number of day gate moves: 15,926
Average daily number of night gate moves: 17,577
Number of day shifts open: 24
Number of night shifts open: 17
The number of unique trucks calling on the ports in July was 10,984.
Note:
Most terminals were closed on July 4th; all terminals were closed for Bloody Thursday on July 5th; many terminals were closed for Harry Bridges Birthday on July 29th.
As part of our monthly newsletters we provide a summary of the latest transaction data from marine terminal operators (MTOs) at the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach. Below please find data from the month of June 2013.
Truck activity information is derived from RFID data.
Average in-terminal turn time:
36.4 minutes day shift
38.7 minutes night shift
(Excluding lunch hour, breaks and trouble tickets)
In-terminal turn time is the average amount of time a truck is inside a terminal to complete a transaction. Turn time at individual terminals will vary depending on time of day and other factors. The average in-terminal turn time in May 2013 was 37.9 minutes for the day shift and 39.2 minutes for the night shift.
Frequent callers* average moves per day:
12% trucks 5 or moves per day
18% trucks 4 moves per day
29% trucks 3 moves per day
25% trucks 2 moves per day
16% trucks 1 move per day
*The ports define frequent callers as trucks making one or more moves per weekday. Average moves per day by frequent callers tells us how many moves a truck can make if it is working every day. In June 2013, 30 percent of frequent callers made four or more moves per day.
Day vs. Night Gates:
Average daily number of day gate moves: 14,628
Average daily number of night gate moves: 16,787
Number of day shifts open: 25
Number of night shifts open: 15
The number of unique trucks calling on both ports in June was 10,721.
Note:
Terminals were closed one night shift for a Stop Work meeting.
LONG BEACH, Calif., July 2, 2013 – The West Coast MTO Agreement (WCMTOA) today announced an 8.1 percent increase in the Traffic Mitigation Fee (TMF) at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, scheduled to take effect on August 19, 2013. The increase will sustain continued operation of PierPass OffPeak gates amid labor cost increases.
Beginning August 19, the TMF will be increased by $5.00 per TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) to $66.50 per twenty-foot container or $133.00 per forty-foot container. The current TMF rates are $61.50 and $123.00 respectively.
Since 2011, WCMTOA has been adjusting the TMF annually based on changes in maritime labor costs. In May, the Pacific Maritime Association, which negotiates and administers maritime labor agreements with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), announced an 8.2 percent increase in wages and benefits for the 2013-14 contract year.
The Traffic Mitigation Fee helps pay for the night and Saturday marine terminal shifts created by the PierPass OffPeak program to relieve daytime congestion in and around the ports. It also provides a financial incentive to move cargo during less-congested times. The TMF is charged for non-exempt containers moving during peak hours (Monday through Friday, 3 a.m. to 6 p.m.).
The terminals have operated the OffPeak gates at a loss since the program’s start in 2005, when they doubled the number of shifts per week, spreading the same number of containers over twice the working hours. Cargo volume since 2005 has been flat. The shortfall between TMF revenues and OffPeak gate costs was $66 million in 2012, $55 million in 2011 and $52 million in 2010. For more financial information about the program, please see http://goo.gl/JiTaf.
Before PierPass was created in 2005, the ports and nearby roads were gridlocked, ships were backed up in the harbor unable to unload, and cargo owners suffered long delays in receiving and shipping vital goods. Over the past eight years, PierPass OffPeak gates have grown to handle approximately 55 percent of all container traffic at the ports, accommodated more than 23 million truck transactions, and greatly eased congestion on city streets and nearby freeways during daytime business hours.
“OffPeak is one of a series of programs by port stakeholders that have greatly reduced congestion and air pollution around North America’s busiest port complex,” said Bruce Wargo, president of PierPass, the not-for-profit company that runs the OffPeak program. “The program adds to the tremendous competitive advantage held by the Los Angeles / Long Beach port complex, which has the most concentrated set of assets of any port in the country, has a workforce that’s ready, available and flexible, and has made remarkable strides in mitigating impacts on local communities.”
About PierPass
PierPass is a not-for-profit company created by marine terminal operators at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in 2005 to address multi-terminal issues such as congestion, security and air quality. The West Coast Marine Terminal Operator Agreement (WCMTOA) is filed with the Federal Maritime Commission, and comprises the 13 international MTOs serving the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. For more information, please see www.pierpass.org.
As part of our monthly newsletters we provide a summary of the latest transaction data from marine terminal operators (MTOs) at the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach. Below please find data from the month of May 2013.
Truck activity information is derived from RFID data.
Average in-terminal turn time:
37.9 minutes day shift
39.2 minutes night shift
(Excluding lunch hour, breaks and trouble tickets)
In-terminal turn time is the average amount of time a truck is inside a terminal to complete a transaction. Turn time at individual terminals will vary depending on time of day and other factors. The average in-terminal turn time in April 2013 was 37.4 minutes for the day shift and 37.9 minutes for the night shift.
Frequent callers* average moves per day:
10% trucks 5 or moves per day
18% trucks 4 moves per day
26% trucks 3 moves per day
29% trucks 2 moves per day
17% trucks 1 move per day
*The ports define frequent callers as trucks making one or more moves per weekday. Average moves per day by frequent callers tells us how many moves a truck can make if it is working every day. In May 2013, 28 percent of frequent callers made four or more moves per day.
Day vs. Night Gates:
Average daily number of day gate moves: 14,404
Average daily number of night gate moves: 16,640
Number of day shifts open: 26
Number of night shifts open: 16
The number of unique trucks calling on both ports in May was 9,918.
Note:
All terminals were closed on Memorial Day for the first shift, and most were also closed for the second shift.
As part of our monthly newsletters we provide a summary of the latest transaction data from marine terminal operators (MTOs) at the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach. Below please find data from the month of April 2013.
Truck activity information is derived from RFID data.
Average in-terminal turn time:
37.4 minutes day shift
39.9 minutes night shift
(Excluding lunch hour, breaks and trouble tickets)
In-terminal turn time is the average amount of time a truck is inside a terminal to complete a transaction. Turn time at individual terminals will vary depending on time of day and other factors. The average in-terminal turn time in March 2013 was 37.4 minutes for the day shift and 37.9 minutes for the night shift.
Frequent callers* average moves per day:
10% trucks 5 or moves per day
16% trucks 4 moves per day
30% trucks 3 moves per day
27% trucks 2 moves per day
17% trucks 1 move per day
*The ports define frequent callers as trucks making one or more moves per weekday. Average moves per day by frequent callers tells us how many moves a truck can make if it is working every day. In April 2013, 26 percent of frequent callers made four or more moves per day.
Day vs. Night Gates:
Average daily number of day gate moves: 14,388
Average daily number of night gate moves: 15,366
Number of day shifts open: 25
Number of night shifts open: 17
The number of unique trucks calling on both ports in April was 10,806. Approximately 8,500 trucks regularly service the POLA/POLB.
Note:
Terminals were closed one day shift for Cesar Chavez’ Birthday and one night shift for a Stop Work meeting.
Please continue to check our web site for our Trouble Ticket Reports and tips on how to reduce trouble ticket problems.
As part of our continuing effort to better understand trouble tickets and their causes West Basin Container Terminal (WBCT) in the Port of Los Angeles has provided the fifth in our series of reports.
WBCT’s report is the first in our series to break out average delays caused by individual types of trouble tickets. During the day gates, the longest delays – an average of 57 minutes in January and February – are caused by dispatching drivers to move a container before the Traffic Mitigation Fee has been paid. During the night gates, arriving too early before the appointment time or the start of the night gates is the longest cause of delays, at an average of 27 minutes.
At WBCT, the largest generator of trouble tickets is truck registration information in their database. Interestingly, it is also the easiest and least time-consuming (11 minutes on average) to fix.
Like previous reports, many of the issues that generate a trouble ticket and additional truck delays can be avoided with some advance checking in the terminal computer system for import availability, booking number accuracy and TMF payment status.
In this month’s example (please see below), Jeff Boden details WBCT’s experience with trouble tickets for January and February of 2013 and provides tips on how to avoid them.
Bruce Wargo
President & CEO
PierPass, Inc.
WBCT Trouble Transaction Observations
In an effort to improve our customers’ experience while on terminal we have been tracking the number and type of trouble transactions and the length of time needed to correct them. Through our observations we have noticed that the trucking community is preparing their drivers for the terminal more and more, but there is still room for improvement.
Your efforts to reduce the frequency of these problems have been noticed. During the last two months at WBCT, we have completed 133,305 gate moves, with only 5,932 going to the trouble window, or generating trouble tickets. That means only 4.45% of the drivers at our terminal had a trouble transaction to correct.
Frequency of Trouble Transactions by Cause
As you will see from our data below, the largest single cause of top trouble tickets issued at WBCT is trucks arriving with incorrectly registered RFID tags. Most of these troubles are from the truck not being registered for the company that the driver is reporting he is driving for. You can also see that this is the quickest trouble for us to resolve at only 11 minutes on average. This issue can be avoided entirely by ensuring that your drivers are correctly registered to your company with eModal before they enter the terminal.
Another major contributor at the trouble window is the customs hold. It is our procedure to have drivers come to the window with their paperwork to clear customs holds. While the number of trouble transactions due to this cannot be changed, the time spent at the window can certainly be reduced by checking your containers on our website www.voyagertrack.com ahead of time for these types of holds and sending your driver in with all necessary paperwork or fees due.
We also see heavy volume at the trouble window with drivers that do not have the correct Pin number for their transaction. This takes drivers an extra 17-21 minutes to get their container on average and accounts for as much as 16% of all trouble transactions. By making sure that drivers have the correct information, this number can be greatly reduced.
Breakdown of Trouble Transactions over January and February
Time Lost
Two unnecessary trouble tickets that have caused long wait times can be easily corrected. The first is arriving too early for the scheduled pick-up appointment time. Drivers should arrive at the terminal no earlier than one hour from their scheduled pick-up appointment time. This will allow them to complete any return moves and stage for the pick-up. Drivers arriving prior to one hour before their appointment will have to wait causing undue stand-by time. WBCT will process drivers in for PierPass pick-ups at 1700, and 1800 for Export PierPass returns. Drivers arriving prior to that time will be forced to wait outside the gates until those times. Please dispatch your drivers accordingly, as over the last two months we have seen average wait times at 28 minutes for imports and 57 minutes for exports due to the above mentioned troubles.
The second most time-consuming trouble ticket is issued to drivers with booking issues or trucking company issues. The booking issue could be anything from a full booking to the wrong size or type of container on a booking. The trucking company issues are most commonly that the trucking company is not registered with the steamship line or the trucking company has been put on hold by the steamship line. These issues can be avoided by regularly checking your booking, correctly dispatching drivers and making sure your company is currently registered and clear of any steamship line holds. Please confirm both of these items prior to dispatching drivers to the terminal.
Equipment holds are the third most time-consuming trouble ticket issued to drivers. Drivers arriving to pick up containers or chassis that are on hold will receive these unnecessary trouble tickets. Information pertaining to container and chassis availability is available on our website www.voyagertrack.com. The information provided is current and drivers should never be dispatched to pick up a container or chassis that is showing on hold without consent from the terminal.
Average Delays (in minutes) by Type of Trouble Transaction in January and February
Conclusion
By following our above recommendations, we believe that trouble tickets and wait times can be reduced by at least 30%. We also recommend familiarizing yourselves with Voyager Track Website (www.voyagertrack.com), which offers several tools our customers can utilize including appointment setting, container availability and payment options. We also encourage you to reach out to our customer service staff for assistance resolving or avoiding these issues if you can’t resolve the issue online. The customer service group can be reached via email at wbctcs@wbct.us and wbcttow@wbct.us.
