Joseph Bonney | Oct 05, 2010 2:19PM EDT
Yang Ming Marine will quit providing intermodal chassis to customers at nine locations in the eastern United States. The Taiwanese carrier is the latest in a series of container ship lines to move away from providing chassis.
The carrier’s North American unit, Yang Ming (America), said, effective Nov. 1, it will no longer provide chassis at Baltimore, Buffalo, Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, South Kearny, N.J., and Worcester, Mass.
Chassis related news from JOC:
Chasing Chassis Solutions.
Other carriers that have announced they are getting out of the chassis business or reducing their involvement include Maersk, Cosco, CMA CGM, NYK Line, Orient Overseas Container Line, Atlantic Container Line, Evergreen and Hyundai Merchant Marine.
The U.S. is the only major country where container ship lines have routinely provided free chassis. The policy grew out of U.S. container shipping’s origins as a domestic freight service competing with trucks.
Maersk led the shift by carriers away from free chassis last year when it formed Direct ChassisLink, which provides truckers with chassis for unrestricted use at a daily $11 fee. Chassis leasing companies later established similar programs.
Yang Ming said the phasing out of free chassis by ocean carriers “will improve efficiencies on many levels within the international and local supply chain. Truckers will now have greater flexibility, and terminal congestion will be reduced, greatly protecting the environment from fleets of idling trucks.”
-- Contact Joseph Bonney at jbonney@joc.com.