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- To cope with our comprehensive sea and air transport services, Qualcomm Bowis formed well-equipped fleet, and formed alliances with many inland trucking company, the transport network is extended to all parts of the country. Whether your goods into the territory of China or Hong Kong, Macao and other any city, we will for you in the mode of transport to provide more choice. APM Terminals did a good job briefing participating motor carriers about the program and staying in frequent touch to address any issues, RoadOne’s director of operations for the Northeast, Paul Miller, added.
“If this set up could be done for some of the larger importers at the Port of New York/New Jersey I think it would help the rest of the import community and truckers, because it allows the remaining port staff to focus on other truckers while a large amount of containers flow separately from the regular process,” Miller said.
APM Terminals officials declined to discuss the new system, only saying that they always look for ways to improve customer service.
The Port of Virginia recently began segregating containers on a free-flow basis for some midsized shippers as well as for motor carriers, Chief Operations Officer Shawn Tibbetts said at the Virginia Maritime Association’s mid-May conference in Norfolk.
State-owned Virginia International Terminals, which operates the port’s terminals in Norfolk and Portsmouth, first explored the “peel-and-go” model during peak season last summer and experienced good results.
“We’re actively pursuing this because this is latent capacity that is underutilized now and allows us to use what we have in a smarter way,” Tibbetts said.
Block stowage—the practice at foreign ports of origin of consolidating containers for the same customers or inland rail destinations in the same bay to simplify and speed vessel unloading at the destination port—makes free flow easier, but is not necessary, according to Ed McCarthy, chief operating officer for CMA CGM (America).
The more overseas port stops to pick up cargo, the more difficult it becomes to get all a customer’s cargo in one block on the ship, McCarthy said. A single load-out for a customer in one port can be block-stowed, but trying to leave free space in the same section of the hold for their cargo in subsequent ports becomes a logistical challenge, especially in an era of alliances when a carrier’s cargo is often transported by a partner’s vessel.
CMA CGM, the third largest container line in the world, partners with terminals in Los Angeles, Oakland and New Jersey to facilitate free flow, McCarthy said.
One of the terminals TTSI works with is West Basin Container Terminal at the Port of Los Angeles. The 261-acre facility had a 30-box minimum when it began its peel-off program more than 18 months ago, but has since bumped it to 50 containers, although 90 to 100 containers is ideal to ensure a top handler—a heavy piece of machinery with an overhead telescopic boom used to lift and move containers—can stay busy during a shift, Mark Wheeler, vice president and general manager, said.
Free flow accounts for only about 5 percent of WBCT’s local cargo moves. About a dozen trucking companies participate, but only three take advantage of the program on a consistent basis. The infrequent users either don’t have enough volume or the administrative and technology resources to get container information from their customers and provide a list to the terminal in a timely fashion. Sometimes customers with priority shipments can’t wait for their containers and want the terminal to dig them out the traditional way, which affects availability for the free-flow pile.
Truckers usually show up in small waves of 10 to 15 to pick up cargo, go to their destination and come back, Wheeler said. Longer-distance deliveries operate best with a handoff, which means a drayage company needs to have a larger fleet and a yard with space to drop the chassis until the second pull can be made. Many motor carriers don’t have those capabilities.
All 13 marine terminals in Los Angeles and Long Beach do some form of free-flow, according to PierPass, the umbrella group that addresses multi-terminal issues such as congestion and collects fees for daytime truck moves to support night gates.
“Free flow is very promising, but it’s not having a material impact on our operations. It would be a great benefit if done universally, or at much higher rate,” TTSI’s La Rosa said.
The Uber Solution. The only way to get more penetration for free-flow activity on the docks is to aggregate the demand from smaller motor carriers and shippers, according to freight professionals. That’s where a new start-up technology firm called Cargomatic comes in.
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