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Issue 11 Do you have a friend or colleague who would like to receive this eFlash, click here. |
Delays hampered operations at some marine terminals in Los Angeles-Long Beach Monday, the first night of operations for PierPass, the port's extended gates program.
Shippers who sent trucks to the harbor for the 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. shift said a shortage of longshore labor, long lunch breaks by longshoremen and insufficient personnel for key positions such as demurrage clerks resulted in frustrating delays at some terminals.
Many services were not in place for the night gates, such as demurrage clerks, chassis repair and customer service.
Terminal operators say getting enough longshoremen for the program is not a problem, but attracting enough experienced workers for night and weekend shifts has been challenging. The assigning of part-time longshoremen, known as casuals, for specialized issues such as demurrage can compromise fluid gate operations.
Jon Hemingway, president of SSA Marine, said that while anecdotal incidents reported by cargo interests and truckers were accurate, the overall numbers reported by terminal operators indicate that most trucks are being processed in a timely manner.
For example, truckers reported problems at SSA Marine's Pacific Container Terminal in Long Beach. Hemingway said some delays resulted due to the need to get casuals to the terminal, but less than 3 percent of the transactions exceeded one hour.
At the same time, most of the 14 container terminals in the harbor reported stronger-than-anticipated gate volumes. The numbers reported by all of the terminals indicate that the volumes during the first two days of PierPass -- the Saturday day shift and the Monday night shift -- totaled 20 to 40 percent of the volumes during traditional weekday shifts.
Hemingway said the terminals are addressing the problem areas and expect to correct them. "We hope people continue to show patience," he said.
In the meantime, FMI is doing everything within our control to expedite pick-up and deliveries of containers during both the Peak and Off-Peak hours. However, if the terminal operators do not have the appropriate amount of labor in place, we will surely encounter delays.
Courtesy of the Journal of Commerce - Bill Mongelluzzo
©2005 FMI International