LA/Long Beach Chassis, how bad is it?

Chassis in POLB and Los Angeles are actually pretty good. If something is needed as a driver you have to go through RODO anyway so mechanics can check for condition of chassis, tires, lights, BIT expiration . As far as your statement about "The pool chassis thing" Pool chassis are used extensively in every berth and for the most part interchangeable with each other, there are some exceptions Evergreen being one of them, you pull an Evergreen load it's going to be on an Evergreen chassis. Most companies don't have there own chassis some of the big boys do, JB Hunt Scheider. You had a question about equipment I'm assuming you're talking about power units. All trucks in the entire State of California are "Clean Trucks" now or are retrofitted to meet the Clean Air Standard, So no more old clunkers like it use to be back in the old days. Biggest issue I'd say still remains time in ports. These new mega cargo ships are bringing in more containers which in turn takes the longshoremen longer to sort through which in turn takes longer for the driver to get there load and out the port. Hope this helped you.

Charlie $Hustle
18 years Experience

 

So based on your questions I am assuming you are going to be booking / finding / moving your own freight. What do your customers or potential customers pay for the chassis? I haven't looked at the newest chassis rates in a while but I think they are $37 per day for a standard 40'. Some companies that import like 20 containers a day get a discount on the chassis so they pay like $22.5 for the chassis. If you get a customer like that they aren't going to pay you a premium for your chassis when they can get one cheaper.

Also my number one reason for not doing this is some containers are on wheels and the flip lines are long. It's not worth it in my eyes.

Only reason I would get a personal chassis and not a pool chassis is if the load is going far. Nothing sucks more then having an issue way out in the boonies. I hope I answered your question, I feel like my thoughts are a bit chaotic at this moment in time.