THE adjacent San Pedro ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are taking steps to address port congestion, truck turn times, limited gate hours, chassis, and the PierPass Traffic Mitigation Fee in a bid to improve their collective competitiveness.
To achieve this goal the Port of Long Beach harbour commissioners has directed staff to prepare a draft discussion agreement to be filed with the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC).
LB Harbour Commissioner Rich Dines, who introduced the measure, said he believed the agreement was necessary so that the port could discuss these issues with Los Angeles.
"This is historic because these two ports have been so distant, yet we share the same challenges. For us to move in the direction of having a discussion agreement, it is international news," he said.
Mr Dines noted that the Blue Ribbon Commission suggested the two ports merge in 2020. "I don't know anyone here who would agree with that," but he said the mayors are urging collaboration.
Commission president Doug Drummond noted that the port faces challenges from the increased size of ships.
"Admittedly, we need to improve our throughput," he said." This is about collaboration with Los Angeles in a very positive way."
City attorney for the harbour department Dominic Holzhaus said the agreement would allow discussion of a concept of joint powers authority between the two ports to address problems.
Mr Dines said the Port of Long Beach harbour commission has received a lot of correspondence about PierPass, but that the port has no control over the programme.
Harbour Trucking Association executive director Alex Cherin said he saw the creation of a discussion agreement as the "next logical step" in getting the ports to address congestion.
Discussions about port congestion were the subject of a recent hearing that the Federal Maritime Commission held in Los Angeles.
PierPass CEO Bruce Wargo said marine terminal operators are concerned about demands for 24/7 operations of terminals and replacing PierPass.
"Mandating substantially higher terminal operating costs without obvious benefit or without due diligence necessary would make such a policy disastrous," he said."
We are talking about adding US$100 million of costs to terminal operators, per year, mostly on the ILWU payroll."
He noted that empty containers and intermodal cargo are exempt from PierPass, and that adding costs to the movement of discretionary cargo could result in cargo diversion to other ports.
He said PierPass has looked into the added cost of working around the clock and found it would add an additional $167 million over the current off-peak cost of $180 million.
PORTS
02 October 2014 - 18:44
Discussion agreement planned for Long Beach and Los Angeles ports
THE adjacent San Pedro ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are taking steps to address port congestion, truck turn times, limited gate hours, chassis, and the PierPass Traffic Mitigation Fee in a bid to improve their collective competitiveness.
PORTS
02 October 2014 - 18:44
Discussion agreement planned for Long Beach and Los Angeles ports
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