Waterfront Coalition Urges Caution on Gate Hours Mandates

FOR RELEASE JANUARY 23, 2004

--- Group Testifies before California Panel on Details of the Gate Hours Project--

[January 24, 2004 - Washington, DC] - The Waterfront Coalition testified today before the Assembly Select Committee on California Ports on the subject of Extended Marine Terminal Gate Hours. Represented by its Executive Director, Robin Lanier, the group outlined its historic support for extended hour gates in the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and its efforts to push demand for such gates, but cautioned "we do not believe that government mandates will succeed in actually changing business practices, because the waterfront is a very complex environment."

The Coalition's detailed written testimony outlined the history of its "Gate Hours Project," in which the Coalition has sought commitments from large cargo owners to shift cargo moves to nighttime gates. On an annualized basis, cargo commitments made to the Coalition to date would move a total of more than 180,000 containers annually to nighttime gates. The largest participants in the Coalition's program have committed well over 40,000 containers on an annual basis. While these commitments are significant, they have not been sufficient to convince additional terminals to open nighttime gates.

The Coalition's testimony outlined the major stakeholders in the international transportation supply chain and the business relationships between and among them. "The fact is there is no business relationship between terminal operators and cargo owners or shippers. Equally important, there are no business relationships between terminal operators and drayage companies," Ms. Lanier pointed out. "Consequently, efforts to use the customer relationship to push terminals for better service are very difficult. Equally important, efforts to use peak-use fees to drive behavioral changes are likely to fail because there is no relationship between the terminals imposing the fees and the shippers and truckers whose behavior the fee is intended to change. The likelihood is that fees will simply be passed on to consumers, without any changes being effected on the waterfront."

The Coalition outlined several additional business community steps that could be taken to promote the use of existing gates and move toward additional gates one or two nights of the week. Among these proposals: Outreach to third-party logistics providers and freight forwarders that control a significant amount of freight that moves through the Ports of Los Angles and Long Beach, targeting outreach to terminals' largest customers, and outreaching to short haul truckers who, by-and-large, remain apprehensive about operating during nighttime hours. "Education of shippers, cargo owners and truckers is absolutely essential to make gate hours work," said Ms. Lanier.

Copies of the full written testimony are available on the Waterfront Coalition's webpage, located at www.portmod.org.

Contact: Ezra Finkin (202)861-0825 ext.203

Click here for a PDF version of this release
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The Waterfront Coalition is a group of concerned business interests representing shippers (importers and exporters), transportation providers, and others in the transportation supply chain committed to educating policy makers and the public about the economic importance of U.S. ports and foreign trade, and to promote the most efficient and technologically advanced ports for the twenty-first century.