Pier 400 Los Angeles Truck Appointment System Updates

Dear Pier 400 Truckers and Customers,

The pandemic has challenged all levels of the supply chain the past 21 months with import cargo volumes remaining on a very strong pace YTD 2021. We have been studying how to improve Pier 400 truck gate operations for customers to move import cargo faster and safer to end users. Operating efficient truck gates at APM Terminals Pier 400 is vital to managing the record cargo flow of import cargo volumes during this strong market situation. Pier 400 cargo volumes are up 18% vs the same period last year.

Dual Import/Empty Appointments

We continue to experience trucking companies securing an excess amount of "single' empty appointments which is no longer necessary when performing a dual transaction (Import pick up / Empty Drop Off). Since Monday, November 8th, TERMPoint allows users to secure a dual appointment by providing the ability to add an EMPTY-In when securing an IMPORT appointment.

Please remind your agents not to make single empty appointments. If your company has secured individual empty appointments to use to pick up an import, please cancel them and update your import appointment to "add empty drop off".  Further instructions for creating Dual Appointments are available on our Truck Appointment page.Dual Appointments for Export In and Import Out will be available in the future.

Reducing 'no show' appointments

One area we want to try and improve is the trucker experience that is seen in our appointment “no show” statistics.

We had a kickoff meeting with Matt Schrap, CEO of the Harbor Trucking Association (HTA) last week to proactively work with him and the HTA membership since many of our truckers are performing well. For those truckers that have a pattern of missed appointments - we’re already in conversation with them to assist them.

The reasons for missed truck appointments are numerous – delays at other container terminals, warehouses, traffic, documentation issues, etc. Keep in mind, currently there’s no consequences for missing truck appointments.

Here’s a graphic that shows total truck appointment “no shows” for October – November 2021. (Green represents completed truck appointments. Red reflects missed truck appointments).

More insight on our trucker appointments

• Imports on chassis in the yard - appointments are not capped or restricted in any way to allow the free flow of containers. (this is visible in the booking system when truckers make an appt.)
• Imports without a chassis – appointments are two hours and have a tolerance window before and after for early or late arrival - and leniency is given for external factors that day.
• Empties appointment window is two hours – and leniency is given for external factors that day.
• Exports have a four hour window - and leniency is given for external factors that day.

Pier 400 turntimes (Source: Harbor Trucking Assn)

Trucker turntimes were at 77 mins January 2021 – November 2021 and have now recently gone to 104 minutes which is another reason we want to focus on the trucker process at Pier 400.

Trucker workshops planned

To help support the trucking community’s future success with Pier 400 appointments, we will hold a number of workshops that will give the truckers a voice on ways we can improve our current appointment system – so we can make it easier and more transparent for truckers.

Once the trucker appointment system is operating smoothly, no show and cancellation fees will apply

We will use the months of December – February 2022 to make more user-friendly changes to our trucker appointment system based on trucker feedback from the workshops.

We will file the fee effective January 1, 2022 and it will be enforced starting March 1st giving truckers and customers three months to get ready.

Starting on March 1, 2022, we will apply:

• Late cancellation fee $25 (if truckers do not cancel their Pier 400 appointment within 2-4 hours of their appointment.) Truckers can cancel their appointments on their mobile phone using the
  APM Terminals Pier 400 app (should they be permitted to by their dispatchers).
• Missed appointment fee $65.

Basis for fees

There is a very high cost in terminal operations related to truck gate operations.

For each dockworker labor shift, APM Terminals Pier 400 Los Angeles places orders for Port Labor based on the number of confirmed truck appointments. This ensures skilled operators are ready in the container handling equipment to support trucker pick-ups and drop-offs. Equally important to understand is - it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to operate weekend gates.

The purpose of the late cancellation fee and missed appointment fee is to simply ensure truckers cancel their appointments so we can use those appointments more efficiently and increase the speed of cargo through the terminal. (It is not designed to be a new revenue stream of fees.) Our customers are looking for us to improve cargo velocity. Missed appointments slow down cargo movement and the biggest complaint we hear from truckers is lack of available appointments.

We piloted the missed trucker appointment fees in APM Terminals Elizabeth, NJ and realized a 22% improvement in trucker performance.

Going forward

We are thankful for the important work our harbor trucking community does to keep supply chains moving during the strong market and we pledge to make the necessary improvements to our truck appointment system user experience during the leadup to March 1, 2022.