Los Angeles port to look at PierPass efficacy

The Los Angeles Harbor Commission wants to know if an industry-created nighttime gate program should be phased out.

Commissioner Joe Radisich asked port staff last week to report back to the commission by next month on whether the PierPass OffPeak program is still necessary.

The nearly 3-year-old OffPeak program, created by marine terminal operators under threat of state legislation mandating night and weekend gate operation at Southern California ports, collects a $50-per-TEU fee on daytime container moves to support the labor costs of keeping gates open at night and on weekends. At the time the program was inaugurated several terminals at the neighboring ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles had limited night and weekend gates, but most terminal operators decried the labor costs of fully maintaining the alternative gate hours.

State Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, then a state assemblyman for the same area, threatened to force the alternative gate hours through legislation after public outcry over increasing daytime truck congestion on port-area highways. Lowenthal dropped the legislation after the industry developed and agreed to implement the PierPass program.

Immediately after the program took effect in 2005, daytime truck congestion fell, though some critics of the program have pointed out that increased volumes and shippers factoring in the PierPass fee have led to a return of peak daytime congestion as well as added nighttime congestion that did not exist before the program.

During the first two years of the OffPeak program, the industry-created non-profit PierPass organization that runs it claims that more than 5 million truck trips have been diverted to the alternative gate hours, or roughly 60,000 truck trips per week. However, the PierPass organization has not publicly issued program updates since May 2007.

Radisich, who has made similar requests to port staff for more current information on the program, also wanted to know how the current flattening of container volumes through the two ports and several soon-to-be-implemented container taxes may bear on the future of the OffPeak program.

Source: American Shipper