Fast-Track Program for Ports Is Delayed
For the fourth time since it was proposed, a program to open terminal gates during nighttime and weekend hours at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach is being delayed. The new launch date for the PierPass Inc. program is set for some time in July.
“We need to spend some time making sure everything works,” said Bruce Wargo, the program’s executive director, who recently had predicted the program would be running by June 1. “I can’t give you an exact date. I’ve stopped doing that.”
Originally, the PierPass program was to be launched in November 2004. Later, that date was changed to the first quarter of 2005.
But there have been several delays as computer software programs are set up and linked with all 13 terminals at both ports. In February, PierPass retained Affiliated Computer Services Inc., headquartered in Dallas, to develop the complex information system that tracks which containers are picked up during peak and off-peak hours.
Companies picking up goods during daytime peak hours will pay a $20 per 20-foot container surcharge ($40 for 40-foot containers). The fees will finance the $160 million cost of keeping terminal gates open during off-hours for truckers picking up cargo containers.
Wargo said the program is close to getting registration forms and credit applications up on the PierPass Web site, www.pierpass.org, for trucking companies and cargo haulers to fill out. It also will be doing some beta testing soon with importers.
PierPass, developed by a coalition of marine-terminal operators and the ports, is meant to alleviate the cargo congestion seen last summer, when an influx of Chinese goods had cargo container ships backed up and waiting for as many as five days for a berth at the country’s largest port complex. —Deborah Belgum
