Advisories ::
LA daytime box fee delayed
Source: The JOURNAL of COMMERCE ONLINE
September 22, 2004
LONG BEACH, Calif.
-- The Port of Los Angeles-Long Beach will implement the nation's
first-ever charge for moving containers during daytime hours in
the first quarter of 2005, rather than on Nov. 1 as originally
planned.
A shortage of longshore labor and delays in setting up collections forced postponement of the $20 per-TEU fee at the country's busiest container gateway, said Bruce Wargo, general manager of PierPass, the organization established by terminal operators to manage the program.
But development of PierPass has fallen behind schedule, and Wargo remains the sole employee of an entity that will eventually collect $150 million a year in fees. "PierPass is obviously a work in progress," he told a meeting sponsored by the California Trucking Association.
PierPass is in the process of hiring staff, which Wargo said should not exceed 10, and choosing a vendor to provide electronic fee collection.
The daytime charge is intended to cut air pollution and highway congestion in the region by shifting truck traffic to weekend and night hours. The program was established after Assemblyman Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, sponsored legislation that would have created a government entity to charge importers and exporters a fee for moving their containers during the peak 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekday hours.
Lowenthal promised to drop the legislation if the transportation community developed its own program by Aug. 31. Terminal operators, shipping lines and shippers represented by the Waterfront Coalition announced the broad outline of the PierPass program one week before the deadline.
The assemblyman previously sponsored another bill -- now law -- that fines terminal operators for excessive truck wait times.
Containers that move during off-peak hours, empty containers, chassis and containers that move by intermodal rail from the harbor or from rail transfer facilities in Southern California will be exempt from the daytime fee.
For bookkeeping and legal reasons, the fee will be charged on every imported container before it leaves the marine terminal and every export container before it is loaded on a ship. PierPass will then refund the fee collected on all exempt containers, probably within 10 days.
The fee will be charged to beneficial cargo owners or their agents. Cargo owners can pay by credit card, electronic transfers from a bank or by establishing an account with PierPass that will generate weekly statements.
All terminal operators in LA -Long Beach will participate in PierPass by offering full-service extended gate hours at the same time on the same days. PierPass will be launched with a Saturday day gate. Another extended gate, such as a Monday or Tuesday night gate, will be added each month for the following four months.
Wargo said the day-use fee will only cover the added costs terminals incur for operating night and weekend gates. He estimated it cost about $32 million a year to operate one extended gate per week and more than $150 million to operate five extended gates per week.
By Bill Mongelluzzo
A shortage of longshore labor and delays in setting up collections forced postponement of the $20 per-TEU fee at the country's busiest container gateway, said Bruce Wargo, general manager of PierPass, the organization established by terminal operators to manage the program.
But development of PierPass has fallen behind schedule, and Wargo remains the sole employee of an entity that will eventually collect $150 million a year in fees. "PierPass is obviously a work in progress," he told a meeting sponsored by the California Trucking Association.
PierPass is in the process of hiring staff, which Wargo said should not exceed 10, and choosing a vendor to provide electronic fee collection.
The daytime charge is intended to cut air pollution and highway congestion in the region by shifting truck traffic to weekend and night hours. The program was established after Assemblyman Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, sponsored legislation that would have created a government entity to charge importers and exporters a fee for moving their containers during the peak 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekday hours.
Lowenthal promised to drop the legislation if the transportation community developed its own program by Aug. 31. Terminal operators, shipping lines and shippers represented by the Waterfront Coalition announced the broad outline of the PierPass program one week before the deadline.
The assemblyman previously sponsored another bill -- now law -- that fines terminal operators for excessive truck wait times.
Containers that move during off-peak hours, empty containers, chassis and containers that move by intermodal rail from the harbor or from rail transfer facilities in Southern California will be exempt from the daytime fee.
For bookkeeping and legal reasons, the fee will be charged on every imported container before it leaves the marine terminal and every export container before it is loaded on a ship. PierPass will then refund the fee collected on all exempt containers, probably within 10 days.
The fee will be charged to beneficial cargo owners or their agents. Cargo owners can pay by credit card, electronic transfers from a bank or by establishing an account with PierPass that will generate weekly statements.
All terminal operators in LA -Long Beach will participate in PierPass by offering full-service extended gate hours at the same time on the same days. PierPass will be launched with a Saturday day gate. Another extended gate, such as a Monday or Tuesday night gate, will be added each month for the following four months.
Wargo said the day-use fee will only cover the added costs terminals incur for operating night and weekend gates. He estimated it cost about $32 million a year to operate one extended gate per week and more than $150 million to operate five extended gates per week.
By Bill Mongelluzzo
