Ocean cargo: New study suggests truck traffic easing at ports of LA/Long Beach

Patrick Burnson, Executive Editor -- Logistics Management, 7/23/2008

LONG BEACH, Calif.—A newly released independent study indicates that truck congestion at the nation’s two largest ports is less of a concern to shippers thanks to an “off peak” program initiated by PierPass Inc. three years ago.

“The OffPeak program has caused a significant shift of port truck traffic from day to evening hours,” stated a report done by BST Associates, an independent economic research and strategic planning firm. “Without the financial incentive of the OffPeak program, it is likely that traffic would shift back to daytime peak hours, BST researchers added. “The OffPeak Program has met its objectives and should be continued.”

According to PierPASS spokesmen, its OffPeak program has diverted more than nine million truck trips from peak daytime traffic since the program’s start.

The program, which created nighttime and Saturday shifts at the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach, has eliminated costly bottlenecks in the ports, reduced gridlock on area freeways and curtailed air pollution from idling traffic. The nine millionth truck trip occurred during the week of June 23.

“PierPass is certainly part of the solution for solving our environmental problems,” said Port of Long Beach spokesman, Art Wong. “Working in tandem with our own ‘clean trucks’ initiative, we hope to reverse the air pollution in the coming years while also improving productivity.”

In a separate report made public today, the Port of Long Beach said that the inventory of ship, train, truck, and other goods movement activity at the gateway showed an overall 6 percent increase air pollution in 2006. This increase was measured against that of the previous year, during a period when container cargo volume increased by 9 percent.

“It is also due to a variety of factors we have less throughput in 2007,” said Wong.