US Ports

PierPass, the oldest extended-gates program in North America, was launched in 2005 to increase throughput capacity at the largest US port complex while diverting a sizable portion of the truck traffic from the peak daytime hours in order to relieve traffic congestion on local freeways and roads.

The new Harbor Trucking Association-Milestone pool at LA-LB is improving truck turn times and round-the-clock access to a variety of chassis types during the current peak season.

The US Coast Guard has declared Condition Yankee for the eastern US Gulf of Mexico ports including Panama City, Pensacola, Mobile, Pascagoula, and Gulfport. Under that status, ports are closed to inbound and outbound traffic.

The port authority, after discussions with rule-implementer the New Jersey Department of Labor, is disseminating detailed information to truckers on the new rules, which the authority believes will have little impact on the drayage fleet and won’t affect many truckers.

The Port of New York and New Jersey is looking for ways to increase the storage space for empty rail cars to prevent shortages as discretionary cargo volumes rise.

The port and government officials have created an advisory committee, called the North Atlantic Marine Highway Alliance, to stimulate barge use and reduce truck traffic and the pollution and congestion it creates.

Justice for Port Drivers, a Teamsters-sponsored group that has promoted picketing and other job actions over the past five years, will participate in job actions at the ports, two motor carrier facilities, warehouses, and rail yards beginning Monday morning.

By improving connectivity in the harbor through more on-dock rail, smoother hand-offs from the vessel to rail, and more timely and accurate data flow, West Coast ports will offer shippers a more attractive package for shipping discretionary cargo through their gateways to the eastern half of the United States, Los Angeles and Long Beach port executives agree.

Set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2019, the bill will discourage retailers and other shippers from contracting with the companies that misclassify drivers by making the beneficial cargo owners jointly liable for any fines assessed on those operators.

After being shut down for a week and a half, the Port of Wilmington reopened its gates to truckers on Monday, and the work to reduce and eliminate the backlog of containers from before Hurricane Florence and from vessels discharging since last Thursday continues.

If you sense that matching a US Gulf Coast port channel’s depth to the depth of the new, expanded Panama Canal would generate more business opportunities, you’re correct.

The Teamsters union, which pushed for the rule change, believes a large proportion of the port’s trucker owner-operators could be found to be employees under the new rule. Truckers say the impact could range from merely creating an “administrative headache," to prompting some to leave the port, and perhaps the industry.

The law and the complaint suit are the latest salvos in the ongoing dispute between the commission on one side, and on the other the New York Shipping Association and the International Longshoremen’s Association, over the commission’s role at the port. Both sides contend that they are trying to correct problems that can hinder the smooth operation of the port and therefore the cost-efficient flow of shipper’s cargo.

The move by TraPac provides additional evidence regarding the North American port trend to extend terminal gate hours to accommodate rising volume.

Whether shippers moving goods through the US Southeast and Mid-Atlantic see delays and elevated truck rates for days or for weeks largely hinges on exactly where Hurricane Florence makes landfall and with how big of a wallop.

An axiom argues, “Necessity is the mother of invention,” and there’s no better example of that than what tight North American truck capacity has prompted.