Long Beach’s 24-hour cargo pickup plans garner little interest

The Port of Long Beach announced in September a pilot program offering 24-hour cargo pickup at one of its terminals to help deal with severe congestion at Long Beach and its neighbour, the Port of Los Angeles. An article in The Wall Street Journal yesterday indicates that the program has so far had no takers.

The pilot allows truck drivers to pick up containers as early as 3:00 am between Monday and Thursday at Total Terminals International LLC (TTI).

The port has talked with its major retailer customers to promote use of the overnight hours. Executive director Mario Cordero said, “We need their buy-in so they can direct their drayage companies to move this cargo.” He appears to see the program’s slow start as expected, presuming that users need time to adapt to the new scheduling option.

However, according to the WSJ article, “Truckers can only make an appointment to pick up a container if they are able to drop off a specific type of container and chassis during the same run. Getting everything to match up can be difficult, said Matt Schrap, chief executive of the Harbor Trucking Association.”

TTI chief executive Bill Peratt said the terminal is considering possibilities to improve the program’s viability.