PORT Newark Container Terminal's (PNCT) new entry gates in the Port of New York and New Jersey already helped halve turn times for reefers since they opened in mid-July.
In a separate effort to improve the flow of reefer containers the terminal is readying to test a programme in which truckers and shippers looking to pick up or drop off a reefer at the terminal can pay US$80 to do so after the normal closing time.
The pilot is part of the terminal's Flex programme, which starting from February enabled truckers or shippers that paid $95.50 to get one of the first 50 gate slots in the day, reported IHS Media.
As part of the terminal's $500 million upgrade to prepare for an increase in mega ship calls, the new entry gates have pared the old three-stage process to two stages, thereby reducing turn times on dry boxes by one fifth, terminal officials say.
The gate system is part of a project that includes expanding the terminal's 263-acre site, improving its electrical, global positioning and wi-fi equipment, and adding four super postpanamax cranes, two of which arrived in the spring. Two more will be delivered in the coming months and 20 new straddle carriers are also due to arrive this year.
By the end of the year, PNCT's development will have increased the terminal's capacity from 1.5 million TEU to two million TEU, with an increase to 2.3 million TEU by the end of 2019.
All of the port's four main terminals have undergone varying levels of upgrades in preparation for the spike in mega ship calls anticipated in the wake of the opening of the elevated Bayonne Bridge in June 2017 and the expanded Panama Canal in June 2016.
PNCT said 75 ships that previously could not fit under the bridge have arrived at the terminal in the 15 months since the elevation of the bridge, or about five a month. The number of mega ships arriving at the port as a whole has surged in recent months.
In a second major upgrade underway at New York-New Jersey, APM Terminals is spending $200 million on a modernisation that includes four new cranes, an appointment system and the strengthening of a berth so that the terminal can handle three mega ships simultaneously.
In a separate effort to improve the flow of reefer containers the terminal is readying to test a programme in which truckers and shippers looking to pick up or drop off a reefer at the terminal can pay US$80 to do so after the normal closing time.
The pilot is part of the terminal's Flex programme, which starting from February enabled truckers or shippers that paid $95.50 to get one of the first 50 gate slots in the day, reported IHS Media.
As part of the terminal's $500 million upgrade to prepare for an increase in mega ship calls, the new entry gates have pared the old three-stage process to two stages, thereby reducing turn times on dry boxes by one fifth, terminal officials say.
The gate system is part of a project that includes expanding the terminal's 263-acre site, improving its electrical, global positioning and wi-fi equipment, and adding four super postpanamax cranes, two of which arrived in the spring. Two more will be delivered in the coming months and 20 new straddle carriers are also due to arrive this year.
By the end of the year, PNCT's development will have increased the terminal's capacity from 1.5 million TEU to two million TEU, with an increase to 2.3 million TEU by the end of 2019.
All of the port's four main terminals have undergone varying levels of upgrades in preparation for the spike in mega ship calls anticipated in the wake of the opening of the elevated Bayonne Bridge in June 2017 and the expanded Panama Canal in June 2016.
PNCT said 75 ships that previously could not fit under the bridge have arrived at the terminal in the 15 months since the elevation of the bridge, or about five a month. The number of mega ships arriving at the port as a whole has surged in recent months.
In a second major upgrade underway at New York-New Jersey, APM Terminals is spending $200 million on a modernisation that includes four new cranes, an appointment system and the strengthening of a berth so that the terminal can handle three mega ships simultaneously.