Truckers Sign Up for Maersk Chassis

A leader in the New York-New Jersey port trucking community said he is among drayage operators who have signed up to rent Maersk Line chassis under the company’s new Direct ChassisLink program but that he wishes it were covered by the industry-standard Uniform Intermodal Interchange Agreement.

“We signed because there’s no alternative out there right now, short of me buying chassis,” said Jeff Bader, president of Golden Carriers of Hillside, N.J., and of the Association of Bi-State Motor Carriers, which represents several dozen port container hauling companies.

Maersk Equipment Co. introduced Direct ChassisLink this month in the Port of New York and New Jersey as the first step in what the company hopes to expand into a national chassis pool.

Under the program, truckers pay $11 per day for chassis but can use them any way they want until they return them. In the U.S., unlike other countries, ocean carriers traditionally have provided truckers with free chassis.

Bader said the main objection he and members of his association have to the Maersk chassis plan is that the Direct ChassisLink is not covered by the UIIA, the basic agreement covering rules for liability and other issues involving interchange of intermodal equipment.

Maersk officials said they hope to bring Direct ChassisLink under the UIIA but that this is an involved process because the UIIA is designed for carriers instead of for equipmennt providers such as Maersk Equipment Co. or Direct ChassisLink, which are separate entities from Maersk Line.

Maersk said that as of last week, more than 400 truckers had signed up for the new chassis program, which the company plans next year to expand to other locations beyond New York-New Jersey.

Contact Joseph Bonney at jbonney@joc.com.