To better serve its Oakland ship assist and escort customers Crowley Maritime Corporation is relocating its tugs to Berth 9 in the Port of Oakland. The move, eight miles away from Crowley's previous terminal at 10th Avenue, will allow Crowley to provide faster service upon receiving a customer's ship assist request.

Crowley tugs will be based closer to most customer operations and will be able to work with greater ease in the expanse of the Outer Harbor. Tugs will no longer need to sail through the Oakland Estuary to reach most vessels.

"The move is part of Crowley's continuing improvement and quality service initiatives in the Bay Area," said Joel Klenck, vice president, ship assist and escort services. "The new Berth 9 facility will enable us to be more responsive to customers and require less notice from them to accommodate their ship assist requirements."

Crowley tugs, which were once a fixture in San Francisco Bay from the early 1900s to 1996, returned home in 2004 to once again provide service to area customers. In the Bay Area, Crowley provides traditional ship assist services to carriers, typically container shipping companies, as they enter and leave the port and its surrounding areas.

Crowley owns and operates one of the most advanced fleets of ship assist and escort tugs in the world. Harbor towing services in Oakland, San Diego and Los Angeles, California, as well as Seattle and Tacoma, Washington include safely escorting and docking tankers, container ships and other vessels as they enter and depart from the harbors. Tugs in Valdez, Alaska and North Puget Sound assist large tankers and provide both tethered and untethered escort services. Crowley tugs based in these areas are outfitted for firefighting services, and barges based in Valdez also provide oil spill response services.