PierPASS Completes Transition in Exporter Procedures; Exporters, Terminals and Steamship Lines Quickly Adjust to New OffPeak Program Procedures at Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach
Posted on: Thursday, 24 August 2006, 12:00 CDT
PierPASS Inc. today announced a successful transition to the new procedures for handling export containers under the OffPeak program at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Implemented beginning August 7, the transition required operational adjustments by exporters, terminals, shipping lines, trucking companies and PierPASS Inc., and was completed with few problems. Under the new procedures, exporters delivering containers during peak hours are required to claim their booking numbers in their PierPASS account before containers arrive at the marine terminals.
The changes were made to improve the efficiency of the OffPeak program, which launched in July 2005 to reduce congestion in and around the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports. Under the OffPeak program, all international container terminals in the two ports have established five new nighttime and Saturday shifts per week. As an incentive to use the new OffPeak shifts and to cover the added cost of the shifts, a Traffic Mitigation Fee (TMF) is required for most cargo movement during peak hours (Monday through Friday, 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.).
Since export containers are now being turned away at the marine terminal gates if they arrive during peak hours without claimed booking numbers, it was crucial to ensure that the industry was prepared for the transition. PierPASS helped ensure this by conducting aggressive outreach to exporters and other industry participants in the weeks leading up to the transition. PierPASS sent tens of thousands of e-mail notices to port users, held a free educational webinar to explain the procedures and distributed 10,000 flyers to truck drivers at the terminals.
While there were some initial difficulties the morning of August 7, these situations were quickly managed. According to PierPASS, between 2 percent and 5 percent of non-exempt export containers were turned away at the gates overall on August 7, depending on the terminal. Some terminals experienced higher rates during the first hours of the shift. During the weeks of August 7 and August 14, a small percentage of non-exempt export containers were turned away at the gates.
"Exporters, terminals, steamship lines, trucking companies and others all did a great job adjusting to the new procedures and keeping the cargo moving," said PierPASS Inc. President and CEO Bruce Wargo. "The goods movement industry has again shown that by working together, we can achieve positive change. The increased efficiency of the OffPeak program will help ensure the continued ability of OffPeak to reduce port congestion."
More information about the export procedure change is available at www.pierpass.org, including a Q&A and a link to a free webinar on the procedure change.
About PierPASS
PierPASS is a not-for-profit company created by marine terminal operators at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports to address multi-terminal issues such as congestion, security and air quality. For more information, please go to www.pierpass.org.
Source: Business Wire
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