"You can lead a horse to water..."
Vol. III, Art. 20

With “PierPass” in mind, consider again some of the advisories we included in previous commentaries. These are the words and the concerns of some of our foremost maritime authorities.

“Despite the growth of the European Union, the U.S. remains the world’s largest consumer market, and the U.S. West Coast is its major gateway. The fact that the ports there have become bottlenecks, rather than funnels, should be a significant concern and a priority issue to solve in the immediate future.” — Capt. S.Y. Kuo, Vice-group chairman, Evergreen Group

“In 2004, strong American demand for Asian-made products increased trade by more than 10% at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. The prospect of still more cargo in the years ahead, and trade’s impact on highway traffic and on air quality have many people in Southern California wavering in their support for further trade growth.” — Richard D. Steinke, Director, Port of LB

“Shipowners, liner operators and port operators can hardly cope with the volumes. Ships from Asia are full. Congested terminals, especially in Europe and the U.S., have delayed ships and disrupted the tight schedules of usually well-oiled weekly loops. This is a challenge for 2005.” — Capt. Yann Le Gouard, Consultant, BRS-Alphaliner

“The marine terminal drayage industry faces two important issues; the shrinking pool of owner-operators, and congestion at ports, railyards and customer facilities. Solving the congestion problem would have a positive effect on driver capacity, but there are a number of other contributing factors that affect the industry’s ability to recruit and train independent owner-operators. We estimate that more than 50,000 drivers — roughly one-third of the total — have left the profession since 2002. Inadequate income is the top cause.” — Clark E. Brown, President, Bridge Terminal Transport, Inc.

“The volume increases that we are experiencing are taxing the infrastructure in place to accommodate it. This growth has presented challenges in terminal design, labor availability and intermodal capabilities amid heightened environmental concerns ... Our industry in 2005 is experiencing a call to arms. The challenges are enormous, the solutions not simple.” — Thomas J. Simmers, President and chief executive, Ceres Terminals, Inc.

“Two million TEUs of containers entered the intermodal stream this year. Assuming similar growth in 2005, congestion will reach epic proportions. Factor in additional security requirements atop this growth, and we could be headed for port gridlock. Can we accept delays of a week or more to unload ships?” — Henry F. White, President, Institute of International Container Lessors

“The backlog of import boxes stranded on the U.S. West Coast and in European terminals, plus the parking lot look-alike 8,000 TEU vessels awaiting berths in Los Angeles-Long Beach and Seattle, are a clear sign that our facilities are overtaxed. Our inland infrastructure is NOT capable of handling the influx of containers. And our ports, too, look frail. We do not have enough truckers or skilled laborers on the waterfront.” — Jim Poon, Chairman, Hong Kong liner Shipping


“Carriers introduced the 8,200-TEU mega-vessels to assist in delivering improved service reliability and economies of scale, but any benefit gained was quickly negated by land and terminal infrastructures that could not support the increased volumes. These bottlenecks caused disruptions and added costs to the consumers’ supply chain pipeline-distribution channels as well as to container carriers due to berthing delays, terminal congestion, diversion costs and decreased productivity.” — Frank J. Baragona, President, CMA CGM (America) Inc.

“I believe the most important issue facing us is how to deal with the record trans-Pacific volumes while facing serious congestion at West Coast ports and on railroads. Many carriers have addressed the ballooning volume by building larger vessels ... Even with the extra tonnage being deployed, volume has overwhelmed ports and railroads, in one of the longest peak seasons we have ever seen. Ocean carriers are always pleased to see an increase of volume, but if your vessels can’t get into port and your containers are backed up at the terminal, the supply chain is seriously affected.” — Zhang Liyong, President, Cosco Americas Inc.

“A negative consequence of growth has been severe congestion at the ports. However, the growth has not been and will not be the only cause for the congestion. Labor shortages, a crowded intermodal rail network and an influx of mega-ships are all contributing factors.” — J. Y. Park, Chairman, Hyundai Merchant Marine

“The infrastructure development is not keeping pace with the increase in world trade, creating numerous bottlenecks at ports, terminals and railroads, mostly in the U.S., but also now developing in some European locations, and approaching in Asia. We must work to develop port and rail capacity to cope with the rising volume requirements. Terminal capacity, already stretched to the limits, need to be expanded. Where this is not possible through horizontal growth, different “vertical” solutions must be found, and procedures allowing for improved efficiencies must be developed to deal with volume increases.” — Rudy Mack, President, Hapag-Lloyd (America) Inc.

“As international trade continues to grow, the ability of customs brokers to expedite the delivery of shipments will be challenging. Problems with lack of infrastructure reached elevated levels during 2004, and prospects for 2005 are not much brighter. Larger container vessels, scarcity of acreage for terminal expansion, insufficient labor supply and shortage of truck drivers at insufficient wage levels will continue to put a strain on supply-chain reliability.” — Peter H. Powell, Sr., Chairman, National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association

“As international trade continues to grow at an ever-increasing pace, one of the most pressing problems facing the transportation industry is congestion — port congestion, rail congestion and highway (truck) congestion.” — Paul F. Richardson, President, Paul F. Richardson Associates

[PierPass registration begins today. How in the world is this “OffPeak” concept supposed to address the concerns so clearly spelled out by the above-quoted maritime professionals. Instead of spending time, thought and money on an idea that would introduce efficiencies into container handling methods ... because that’s where the problems lie, according to those who should know ... the gurus at LA/Long Beach decided to “lead the horse to water”. Well, let’s see how thirsty that horse is.]