What you need to know about California Terminals during 2018 Peak
The past 2 weeks we have gotten lots of inquiries regarding the state of the terminals during peak season in California.Oakland has been busy, but hasn’t seen the issues that Long Beach has. We now need appointments at some terminals to pick up AND return empties. The issues with returning empties and peak season congestion is causing some issues.
1) Driver utilization is poor due to having to drop empty containers in our yard and not be able to return immediately
2) More containers in the community means chassis shortages at many of the depots
3) Storage and stop off charges caused by terminals not taking empties.
Just one example over the past couple of weeks involved the return of Hamburg Sud containers. No one would take them for over a week!
The termination situation is fluid throughout the day as well. Here’s a perfect example of what we recently encountered.
Pick up in the AM for a Noon delivery in Fontana, CA. Consignee completed the unload at 1 PM. Driver called into dispatch for return instruction on his Hamburg Sud container. APM/Maersk Terminal was accepting HS empties, so the driver was on his way. Traffic, Traffic, Traffic of course. We got back to Long Beach around 3:30 PM. At that time we got notification that APM was no longer taking HS empties and that we would now have to return to WBCT. Well that’s now a problem, WBCT requires appointments to return empties. So we have to bring the empty back to our yard, store on chassis until appointment time/date, then delivery the empty upon WBCT’s request. That’s a lot of coordination just to ditch an empty!
Your current guide to empties in LA/Long Beach
APM/Maersk No appointment
APL/Eagle Marine No Appointment
YTI/Yusen No Appointment
ITS/Kline No Appointment
PierC/Matson No Appointment
TTI/Hanjin Appointment
Yang Ming/WBCT Appointment
Trapac Appointment
Pier E Appointment
SSA/Pier A Pre-Alert
PCT/Cosco Pre-Alert
Now to add to the chaos there has been some protests in LA/LGB by the teamsters. They have targeted some large drayage companies such as XPO and NFI. To date there does not seem to be a huge disruption, but to have this during the midst of a busy peak season is just another factor that BCO’s need to be aware of.
At Port X Logistics we are trying to help our customers in a couple of ways.
• Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
• We have purchased more chassis to reduce the disruption of shortages at the terminals
• More Trucks and More Drivers. Beefing up capacity will help overcome terminal inefficiencies
• Additional yard space to store full and empty containers
• Expanded warehouse capabilities to handle trans-loads
For help on crisis management, trans-loading, and time definite deliveries (drayage & trucking) askus@portxlogistics.com. I am also always available at 406 595 0631 to provide information on any terminals around the country.