Port of Los Angeles

The key to the top-tier ports’ dominant share of Asian imports is that ocean carriers have chosen the four gateways as the first call inbound on their services from Asia. And that ensures that retailers and other large importers receive what they value most.

The issue of public money for a private function was raised, but the port noted that Southern California ports have various subsidy programs in place for environmental reasons, such as to encourage carriers to plug into shoreside electrical power to reduce emissions at berth.

Space is so tight today in the eastbound Pacific that some beneficial cargo owners are paying higher than spot rates to get their shipments on vessels leaving Asia. However, there is a qualifier to that trend shippers should know about.

It took the new management team at APL’s Pier 300 in Los Angeles only three months to improve truck turn times from the worst in the harbor to the fourth best among the 12 terminals. And they accomplished it by deploying a "customer focus/consumer focus" strategy.

Yusen Terminals in Los Angeles, where Union Pacific is adjusting to a consolidation of shipments from the three former lines that formed the Ocean Network, is a major focus of the railroad’s attention.

Beneficial cargo owners and truckers in Southern California have experienced only spot chassis shortages, and given current import projections, this condition should continue through the peak season. However, store-door contracts that designate the use of specific intermodal equipment provider chassis are still an issue, and this condition could worsen if non-vessel operating common carriers expand their use of door contracts with chassis clauses.

As with many other consumer industries, it’s not that the toy industry pie is shrinking, it’s merely being split differently.

In 2017, US imports of household goods jumped as home projects and construction soared on economic strength, and the outlook calls for continued growth in 2018.

BCOs fear imposing indirect source pollution restrictions on warehouses and distribution centers on top of LA-LB clean-air restrictions will raise the cost of shipping through the Southern California gateway.

A key US retailer group asked the Federal Maritime Commission to turn down the new fee structure with a mandatory appointment system, or at least delay a decision, and it offered several reasons for its stance.

Chassis support facilities are part of a larger trend, certainly on the US West Coast, to repurpose properties that may not be suitable for marine terminals for ancillary functions. Moreover, the ultimate goal, if achieved, would represent a business model advance for the sector.

The new system, which begins in August, pending Federal Maritime Commission approval, assesses a flat fee on all day and night container moves, requires an appointment, and is a response to complaints from beneficial cargo owners and truckers about the high price of the traffic mitigation fee and truck bunching at certain times of the day.

West Coast ports have taken the lead in breaking down the barriers to information sharing by establishing information portals that will allow all port users to access the shipment data they need in a secure environment. This development promises to accelerate productivity.

Sponsored: Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka discuss technology in the freight transportation industry, including its Port Optimizer pilot program with GE Transportation, and examining challenges of increasing data standardization and wider adoption of technologies across the supply chain.

PierPass has its supporters and detractors, but port users agree that the largest US gateway could not handle 17 million TEU per year without a regular schedule of night and weekend gates.

Many US ports are facing the challenge of handling container surges from today’s mega-ships with an operating schedule designed in the 1970s.

Beneficial cargo owners who contract with XPO for drayage will closely watch a class-action misclassification lawsuit in Los Angeles seeking wages, damages, and a permanent injunction preventing XPO from classifying drivers as independent contractors.