The Port of NY & NJ is implementing a neutral chassis-pooling plan to provide better efficiencies in the terminals and beyond. With a portwide neutral chassis pool to soon be implemented and other productivity measures already in place, the Port of New York & New Jersey looks to be at the forefront of efficiency. Via the Port of New York & New Jersey’s Council on Port Performance, a cooperative effort is seeking to ensure that cargo moves without undue delay through the port’s six marine terminals. “For the first time ever, unprecedented in any port, we’re breaking down the silos to work through solutions to problems collaboratively,” Bethann Rooney, the Port of New York & New Jersey’s assistant director for port performance, told the American Journal of Transportation. “In the past, a problem was generally addressed – or not addressed – by the single responsible entity in a vacuum, as opposed to that entity talking to those that are affected by it, that have some secondary or tertiary role in addressing the problem,” she continued. “They would work on it in a vacuum, and sometimes it worked and positively affected the outcome, and in other cases it made things worse or didn’t consider the impact or the implication on other folks up or downstream from where that entity was,” Rooney said.
Ability to move trucks swiftly and efficiently through marine terminals is a priority being collaboratively addressed at the Port of New York & New Jersey.
Ability to move trucks swiftly and efficiently through marine terminals is a priority being collaboratively addressed at the Port of New York & New Jersey.
John J. Nardi, president of Edison, N.J.-based New York Shipping Association Inc., (NYSA) which represents the entities that do business at the port’s terminals, said the task of advancing collaborative solutions has not been an easy one. “It’s a very complex matter,” said Nardi, who is particularly focused on the “gray” or neutral pool of chassis that could be in place as early as Jan. 1. Nardi said the year-and-a-half-long process of bringing the chassis pool to fruition involved dealing with issues of labor jurisdiction, operational structure and expiring marine terminal leases. “It has turned out to be so much more complicated than we ever envisioned,” Nardi said. The plan calls for bringing about 38,000 chassis that currently are in pools of three separate intermodal equipment providers plus a relative few still under ocean carrier control into a single interoperable pool, with the many of the chassis to be stationed at neutral depots off marine terminal properties. “We know this all has to be done to keep the port competitive,” said Nardi, who, like Rooney, pointed to anticipated efficiencies for truck drivers plus environmental benefits. “A truck driver will no longer need to pick a set of wheels, drop a set of wheels at a second location, go to a third location to pick up a new set of wheels based on who the container he is carrying next has a contract with,” Rooney said, adding that the new pool should eliminate unnecessary empty chassis moves, which will reduce congestion at terminal gates and in depots and eliminate vehicle miles traveled and emissions. She said the gray pool should help avert circumstances where a driver could be waiting four or five hours at a chassis depot for a specific set of wheels of particular size, type and owner. “The value of having industry executives working together to address these complex business processes can’t be understated,” Rooney said. “We have had folks working together for a year and a half or longer to address these issues that didn’t develop overnight. They’re collective problems. “When we all work together, we’ll all essentially do better, and I think the value of what we’ve done has proven itself, because ports around the country are now replicating what we’ve done,” she added. The Council on Port Performance also has recently unveiled a Truckers’ Resource Guidebook, consolidating into a single resource the disparate processes, procedures, documentation requirements and other information for the port’s six marine terminals. The guidebook includes details on delay-causing trouble tickets and instructions to drivers on how to best avoid them. And, on Sept. 1, the port performance council rolled out its Terminal Information Portal System, or TIPS, placing into a single Web portal a host of details on the half-dozen terminals and particulars on container availability. “Competition is entirely dependent upon reliability and efficiency, which really comes to performance and productivity,” Rooney said. “Our ability to grow further and particularly to attract and retain discretionary cargo is directly tied to our performance.”