Missed truck appointments at Port Elizabeth, NJ

The pandemic has challenged all levels of the supply chain the past 18 months with import cargo volumes remaining on a very strong pace in 2021.

Since March of this year, we have been studying how to improve truck gate operations for customers to move import cargo faster and safer to end users in our U.S. container terminals.

One specific finding that is not trending well is missed truck appointments. The impact of missed truck appointments is significant. Container terminals become congested quickly if they cannot keep pace with immense cargo volumes that arrive daily. In Pier 400 Los Angeles, we’re seeing missed truck appointments range 23% to 40% per month; Port Elizabeth, New Jersey 15%; SFCT (Miami) 11% and Mobile, Alabama 5%.

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

In APM Terminals Port Elizabeth, 15% of missed appointments equals 280 missed appointments daily. When you multiply that figure by five business days you can understand the scale of impact to terminal operations. This comes at a time when we are trying to forecast container volumes accurately to optimize labor and container handling equipment deployment to keep cargo moving, reducing overall container dwell times and demurrage costs, while at the same time improving overall trucker experience.

In an effort to improve our gate operations and act as a catalyst to more consistent cargo flow patterns – we will be rolling out a new system on October 1, 2021 as a three month pilot designed to improve the accountability of truck gate operations at APM Terminals Elizabeth, NJ.

An APM Terminals Elizabeth filing in the New York Terminal Conference Tariff fee of $62.49, effective October 1, 2021 will be used for a missed import appointment. This is designed to ensure an equitable, accountable approach to the process.

Our goal is not to create a new revenue model, but to find a way to keep cargo moving off the terminal by focusing on the 15% of our truckers who are missing appointments.

To assist you in preparing for this new approach, we have already actively communicated with many trucking companies and the Bistate Motor Carrier’s Association leadership and members to introduce and explain the situation. Plus, for those truckers that have a pattern of missed appointments we’re already in conversation with them to show them how the APM Terminals Truck Appointment System (called TermPoint) will work and the financial impact of missed appointments.

Please note truckers will not be penalized if the reason for missed appointments is related to APM Terminals. We will be tracking the reasons for this (weather, flooding, TermPoint system unavailable,
gates down etc.) so that we take responsibility for fixing the problem on our end too. We have a dispute process in place, via link on the invoice to the trucker to allow review and crediting as needed. We will remove all non-trucker related fault items before it is sent (weather, system outage etc).

Truckers are the largest users of our container terminals - and the trucker experience is paramount to APM Terminals Elizabeth’s success with customers. To support this, we have invested $30 million in the recent construction of a new inbound truck gate facility and terminal appointment system. Optimized trucker appointments translate to more efficient supply chains with less cost for customers – and at the terminal level - better use of container handling equipment, less import container dwell time and less demurrage cost for importers.

We look forward to working with you on this pilot and remain open and flexible to all good ideas to help make cargo flow more effectively – that is our goal – not to monetize missed truck appointments.

Should you have any further questions please feel free to contact your local APM Terminals professional.

On our website, we have also posted frequently asked questions on missed appointments and the tariff pdf.