Oakland Terminal Operators Propose Off-peak Hours
Marine container terminal operators at the Port of Oakland are developing a program to operate their terminal gates on Saturdays to reduce weekday congestion at the port. The new program, called OakPass, is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of this year, pending review by the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) and other conditions.
FMC today voted unanimously to issue a request for additional information (RFAI) to the parties of the Oakland MTO Agreement (OAKMTOA), the agreement among the container terminals at the Port of Oakland, concerning the Amendment to the agreement that would authorize an off-peak hours program.
OAKMTOA is seeking to operate, initially, an additional Saturday gate to move cargo in and out of the marine terminals. To pay for the additional gate, shippers and/or beneficial cargo owners would pay a fee during normal operations, Monday-Friday.
“The Port of Oakland and the four international container terminals agree on the need for additional capacity to reduce congestion and accommodate future volume growth,” said John Cushing, president of OakPass LLC. “After spending well over a year evaluating options including night gates, we determined that adding a Saturday gate is the most practical and cost-effective method to increase capacity in a way that meshes with availability of truck drivers and longshore workers and serves the entire supply chain.”
FMC Commissioner William Doyle stated, “I support efforts to reduce seaport congestion at our nation's gateways. I believe marine terminal operations during off-peak hours is necessary at some ports. Operating terminals outside of normal working hours adds costs to the shipping public and the supply chain. I have taken into consideration the many concerns raised by the shipping public in their comments filed with the Commission. I have also met with and spoken with the OAKMTOA parties over the past several weeks regarding the concerns that have been raised. To this end, I provided questions that have been incorporated into the request for additional information. I encourage the OAKMTOA parties to meet and discuss their proposed OAK PASS program with representatives of the import, export and trucking communities.”