Maersk has worked with the Long Beach, California-based Harbor Trucking Association (HTA) to solve issues many landside logistics providers have faced due to the 2020 transpacific peak season.
Landside logistics providers, including the more than 15,000 truck drivers who are HTA members, have been trying to keep pace with import cargo volumes that test port and inland distribution infrastructure.
Narin Phol, Maersk North America’s regional managing director, said: “We are working closely with the HTA and our customers to manage through this peak season efficiently.
“Every week brings new volumes, new challenges and opportunities so it is essential we collaborate effectively with our HTA partners.”
Maersk has been exploring both short-term and long-term solutions to support truck drivers’ important role of harbour trucking from ports to warehouses and distribution centres.
The company has kept in daily contact with the HTA, keeping a meeting cadence with HTA president Weston LaBar, to hear and share feedback on terminal performance such as truck gates, appointment systems, empty returns and ways to optimise trucker experience.
APM Terminals Pier 400 Los Angeles, the largest privately operated container terminal in the Los Angeles/Long Beach port as well as in North America, plays a pivotal role in the daily flow of cargo with the trucking community.
The terminal is focused on dual transactions which enable a trucker to return an empty container and pick up an import container for local delivery.
Currently 65% of Pier 400’s gate transactions are dual transactions and the goal is to increase this, enabling higher productivity trips for harbour truckers.
Pier 400 also offers late night Friday gates from 6pm to 3am and Saturday gates from 8am to 4pm based on customer and trucker needs during peak season.
Maersk is also a part of the 2M alliance, consisting of Maersk and MSC, which operate at the only two ports in the LA-Long Beach complex.
This allows truckers to efficiently pickup and return containers to two ports located close to one another.
MSC’s TTI facility in Long Beach offers truckers one of the best appointment systems in the harbour to support daily planning and time management as well as Saturday gates.
Additionally, Maersk’s regional head of transportation Bill Peratt sits on the HTA productivity committee, which is chaired by LaBar, to help find solutions to the trucking industry’s challenges based upon his own harbour-wide experience.
