The cost to truck anything from the port is really high as you said.
And to compound the problem, the cost of "not-trucking" anything from the port is really high too.
Shippers get nine days to have their offloaded containers staged on-site, included in their basic as-usual- port charge. But they have recently added on some serious charges for going past that and they ramp up fiercely as each day passes. One hundred dollars per container for the first day, two hundred the next, three the third, and before you know it you are well into Yikes-ville. Gotta pass that along too before you even get to the trucking pass-throughs. Pretty soon they will be like Wells Fargo, making all their profit off of overdrafts, little joke there, or not.
From today's Journal of Commerce:
The removal of long-dwelling containers at Oakland’s largest marine terminal is already picking up pace, just over a week after Oakland International Container Terminal (OICT) implemented a surcharge for boxes that remain at the terminal for an extended period.
“We are seeing a pretty remarkable improvement,” said Ed DeNike, president of SSA Containers, which operates OICT, told JOC.com.
With laden import containers dwelling at OICT twice as long as normal, and the terminal’s service suffering as a result, Oakland’s largest terminal operator implemented the fee on Dec. 1.
OICT’s “extended dwell-time fee,” which is charged to cargo owners, begins on the eighth day that a laden import container has been sitting on the terminal. The $50 per-day fee increases to $75 on days 13–17, and to $100 on days 18–22. The fee tops out at $150 beginning on day 23 and is charged each day until the container is removed, according to an SSA customer advisory. Empties and laden export containers are not subject to the fee.
“We have to do it,” said DeNike. “These import containers [were] not moving.”
Extended dwell container fees have become commonplace on the busy West Coast of late. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach announced a surcharge in October, but continue to
delay implementation, citing progress in reducing the number of boxes.
Two terminal operators at the Northwest Seaport Alliance of Seattle and Tacoma began charging long-dwell fees last month.
OICT handles about 70 percent of Oakland’s container volume. Bryan Brandes, maritime director for the Port of Oakland, said port-wide dwell times have increased to more than six days on average from less than four days earlier this year.
The other three container terminals in Oakland have not announced plans for extended dwell-time fees, Brandes said, although the marine terminals and two railyards are all contending with the same operational issues of longer turn times for trucks and chassis shortages.
Port says congested warehouses at root of problem
Importers are letting their containers sit longer on the terminals because they have nowhere to take them.
“It’s the warehouses, and it’s going to be the warehouses for a long time,” said Brandes, referring to the lack of available capacity at those facilities. He said with online shopping continuing to snag a larger share of US consumer purchases, retailers are holding onto more inventory to satisfy customers’ demands for rapid delivery of their merchandise.
With many warehouses in Northern California operating at or near capacity, both laden and empty containers are sitting on chassis at the facilities longer than in the past. “Chassis are tight. We need additional chassis here,” Brandes said, adding he has reached out to intermodal equipment operators about the issue.
According to PIERS, a JOC.com sister product within IHS Markit, US imports from Asia in January through October are 10.5 percent higher than the same period last year. Brandes said import volumes into Oakland will increase going forward as trans-Pacific carriers that had suspended services during the summer when the port was dealing with congestion problems resume calling.
Carriers
suspended seven services, but four have returned. Ocean Network Express is scheduled to reinstate two services in February, with CMA CGM also due to resume a service that month. Brandes said China United Container Line will start a new trans-Pacific service later this month with vessels of about 3,000 TEU capacity and make Oakland its first inbound call.
Although Oakland experienced vessel bunching during the summer months, a port spokesperson said one to three vessels per week are forced to stop at anchor before berthing, a range that has been consistent in recent weeks.
The average truck turn time at Oakland’s marine and rail facilities in November was 81 minutes, up from 74 minutes in October and 71 minutes in September, according to the Harbor Trucking Association.
