FMC Public Form Recap 2014

The FMC Public Forum took place recently at the Port of Los Angeles. The following points provide a recap and outline the issues that were presented and discussed at the forum.

Issues:

Large ships are here and even larger ones will be here soon.
Not enough chassis and a lack of control of the existing chassis – Pool managers are constantly moving chassis at the expense of leasing companies.
Lack of qualified mechanics to repair bad order chassis.
Long turn times – 22% of turn times now are over 2 hours.
Driver shortage – no new drivers are entering the trucking industry, and those not making money are exiting.
Repositioning equipment is taking up much needed truck power.
New distribution centers and delivery points continue to move further from ports requiring more time for a driver to deliver.
Continually increasing fees will chase more cargo away from ports.

Proposed Solutions:

A grey chassis pool will reduce the repositioning of chassis and better provide a location for storage/access when and where needed.
Establish a common metric of an acceptable terminal turn time for all to agree upon and use as a standard or requirement.
Vancouver Port has a one and a half hour established metric, and terminals pay a penalty for detaining drivers past this time.
Appoint systems at all terminals to assist them in hiring adequate labor.
Free flow or peel-off piles for shippers with large container volumes on one ship (only applicable for shippers with 80 to 100 containers per vessel).
24/7 operation at the port – this will allow drivers to gravitate to the less congested times and still be able to work their full hours of service.

Overall, the grey chassis pool was the solution that seemed the most viable and steps are being taken to turn the proposed solution into a reality.