Harbor Trucking Association (HTA) and California Trucking Association (CTA) are urging the leadership of the two major Southern California ports to create a pilot program for a single, interoperable, complex-wide appointment system for drayage and other trucks. In a Jan. 25 letter to the executive directors, HTA said improved movement of freight into/out of the ports is possible with lower costs/more productivity across the 12 container terminals. Currently, trucking companies must navigate as many as seven different reservation systems to operate at Los Angeles/Long Beach.
“HTA and CTA applaud Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach leadership for recent efforts to develop a single appointment system and technology for enhanced transparency and efficiency. For a single appointment system to be successful, data must be shared into an interoperable system and terminals must agree on common and consistent business practices to provide motor carriers with capacity planning capabilities.”
The Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach are open to the idea of a unified trucker platform, according to Executive Directors Gene Seroka and Mario Cordero, respectively. However, Tom O’Brien, executive director for the Center for International Trade and Transportation at California State University-Long Beach, noted that it is ultimately up to the marine terminal operators to move on the proposal. O’Brien believes the system would add value to the supply chain, solve challenges truck drivers face, and increase the fluidity of the system.
O’Brien said that in the aftermath of the pandemic and the challenges the ports have faced in the past three years with a dramatic increase in containers, now more than 20 million, there needs to be greater efficiency as volume is expected to continue to grow. Stephen Lyons, the national supply chain envoy, added that the Biden administration is looking to facilitate things. The HTA and CTA said in their letter that it is time to move forward and that this effort has the potential to be a game changer.
Sources:
https://www.ttnews.com/articles/trucking-groups-urge-reservation-changes-southern-california-ports
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