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Overview of Port Drayage Containerized shipping links trading partners through a sequence of land, sea, and terminal operations. The performance of containerized shipping as a whole depends critically on intermodal drayageâthe trucking movements linking marine terminals with importers, exporters, and rail terminals. Containerized shipping is a hub-and-spoke system, with the ports and terminals as the hubs and drayage providing the spokes. This role makes drayage the chief manifestation of con- tainerized shipping in port area communities, where it is a part of the congestion and emissions problems endemic to urban areas. Port drayage refers to the movement of containers between a port terminal and an inland dis- tribution point or rail terminal. A typical drayage assignment involves either delivering an export container to a marine terminal or picking up an import container. The complexities of the business, however, require an average of around 2.5 drayage trip legs for each container movedâslightly more than one round tripâdue to the need for tractor-only moves and empty container reposi- tioning. This average implies that for about 26 million containers handled at U.S. ports in the peak year of 2007, truckers drove over 60 million trip legs. Drayage of marine containers to and from port terminals is a complex process involving inter- actions between customers (importers, exporters, third-party logistics firms [3PLs]), ocean carriers, terminal operators, and trucking firms. The fundamental business transaction is between the ocean carrier and the customer, with the customer paying for waterborne transportation of the goods inside the container. Marine terminal operations and drayage are both intermediate steps, and both must cope with the movement preferences, policies, and capabilities of the ocean carriers and their customers. This intermediate position requires both drayage firms and marine terminals to cope continually with unevenness of demand, inconsistent priorities, mismatched information flows, and cost pressure. In any given port region, containerized trade involves a handful of large marine terminals, up to about 30 steamship lines, 2 to 3 railroads, and hundreds of small drayage companies. The typical trucking company specializing in port drayage relies heavily on owner-operators as sub-haulers, operating under contract with the drayage company providing dispatching, management, and commercial functions. Some firms also have company (employee) drivers. Drayage companies can be a single-owner operator but most of the business is done by small firms with 10 to 100 drivers. The drayage process is initiated by a transaction between a carrier and a customer for the con- veyance of goods. The drayage firm usually acts as a third party that is neither the customer nor the ocean carrier. Drayage firms typically receive little advance notice of an order. For import traffic, trucks are dispatched to the terminal at some point after the container clears customs yet prior to the time in which the cargo owner will have to pay demurrage charges. The period of free storage 1 C H A P T E R 1 Introduction
varies by terminal but is rarely more than 1 week. For exports, deliveries can be made within a pre- determined window prior to vessel departure. The principal challenge for the dispatcher is to allo- cate resources (trucks) across orders in a way that keeps all trucks working productively while still meeting the delivery windows of the customers, which can vary based on the customer demands and commodity type. Truckers, who are paid per load, rely on dispatchers to ensure that their assigned daily schedule minimizes the number of miles they drive without a load and the time they spend waiting for a load to be ready. A key challenge facing drayage companies is matching up the movement preferences of importers and exporters with the protocols and capabilities of marine terminals and ocean carriers. This challenge creates a constantly shifting set of complex and often contradictory requirements. Drayage companies and their drivers are remarkably adaptable, but the complexity of their task leads to inefficiencies, delays, excess costs, and unnecessary emissions. Identifying and reducing these inefficiencies is a major objective of this guidebook. The drayage industry is fragmented and highly competitive. The competitiveness leads drayage firms to relentlessly pursue efficiencies and cost-cutting opportunities. Most drivers are owner- operators who receive a percentage of the revenue from each move rather than being paid by the hour or the mile. Drivers therefore have an incentive to make as many revenue moves as pos- sible and minimize non-revenue time and miles, accounting for much of the practices observed in the industry. The fragmentation of the system, however, limits the ability of any one firm to optimize operations, manage peaking, reuse empty containers, or otherwise rationalize the system as a whole. Drayage companies and owner-operators typically rely on Class 8 diesel tractors (Figure 1â1) purchased after they were retired from long-haul trucking companies. The result is an older hetero- geneous fleet of equipment originally designed for other uses. Some companies and owner- operators do buy or lease new tractors with specifications suitable for port drayage. That practice has increased greatly in Southern California due to the requirements of the portsâ Clean Truck Program. The practice is likely to spread as other ports eventually implement their own clean air plans. The focus of this guidebook is helping planners better understand the causes of bottlenecks, delays, and extra trips that increase the time, cost, emissions, and congestion impacts of port drayage beyond what is necessary to accomplish the underlying transportation task. The guide- book does not venture to instruct planners in how to eliminate all congestion from the port system. 2 Truck Drayage Productivity Guide Figure 1â1. Class 8 drayage tractors. Source: The Tioga Group, Inc.
Instead, the guidebook focuses on strategies for identifying and quantifying what can be consid- ered ânormalâ congestion that reflects a well-utilized terminal and differentiating this from bottle- necks, cascading delays, or redundant dray trips that hold down the efficiency of a terminal and the productivity of drayage truckers. This distinction between these two categories is rarely clear and depends, to a certain extent, on the perspective of the participants. Congestion and delay at marine terminal gate queues and container yards is primarily caused by peaking, and can be exacerbated by limitations on working hours, external factors such as the OffPeak Program, or shortcomings of legacy facilities. There will always be comparative peaks in demand, regardless of volume. Even if a terminal is running under capacity, it will usually have peak periods where the volume temporarily exceeds the allocated labor. Most peaks follow recur- ring patterns known to port staff. Beyond congestion within the terminal, congestion on urban streets and highways is ordinarily beyond the control of terminals or truckers, but port author- ities may have some influence. Extended gate hours (early morning and late evening) do, however, assist truckers in avoiding the worst peak traffic hours. Even with the most meticulous preparation, there is no such thing as a problem-free system. Drayage is a part of a complex international trading system in which occasional miscommunica- tions between parties are a part of doing business. Errors in paperwork, for example, may not be the fault of the drayage driver, yet they can still cause delays for the driver and the drayage system. Every participant expects periodic congestion due to the ebb-and-flow nature of the business. Accordingly, the study team attempted to determine the frequency and causes of unexpected or unexpectedly severe delays, unnecessary bottlenecks, and wasteful extra trips, and to identify best practices to reduce those problems. Despite their local orientation, drayage operations are nevertheless a component of a much longer international supply chain. Truck drayage systems exist at major container ports around the world, and although the trucks used at Shanghai or Rotterdam may look quite different, their func- tion in the supply chain is very similar to drayage trucks in the United States. Although most large ports have rail linkages as well, almost all container ports rely on drayage for a large percentage of hinterland connections to surrounding urban areas. The profile of drayage has increased sharply in the last few years as its potential role in reducing air pollution has been recognized. Ports around the country have instituted âclean trucksâ pro- grams aimed at improving the environmental performance of trucks calling at their terminals. In addition to the most well known program at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach (California), programs are aimed at improving drayage emissions at Seattle/Tacoma (Washington), Oakland (California), New York/New Jersey, Houston (Texas), Baltimore (Maryland), and Savannah (Georgia), with more programs in the planning stages. These policy interventions into the dray industry make a thorough understanding of the drayage system even more important. The impact of drayage on emissions and greenhouse gasses (GHGs) is directly attributable to time spent idling and moving. Delays that increase idling and inefficiencies that create extra trips add to emissions and congestion without increasing transportation service or value. Use of this guidebook should help participants in containerized transportation reduce such delays and keep extra trips to a minimum. Purpose and Organization of This Guidebook NCFRP Report 11: Truck Drayage Productivity Guide is intended to be a practitionerâs guide to measuring, analyzing, and improving port intermodal drayage. The target stakeholders include port authorities, marine terminal operators, drayage firms, and regional transportation planners. Introduction 3
The objective of the guidebook is to give those stakeholders tools to improve drayage productivity and capacity while reducing emissions, cost, and port-area congestion. The guidebook is organized around a logical progression of steps in an analysis of local or regional port drayage issues. Chapter 2 discusses the drayage process, and Chapter 3 covers acqui- sition of drayage data from a broad range of sources. Chapter 4 provides a summary matrix of drayage issues, impacts, solutions, etc. The problems and solutions listed in Chapter 4 are then dis- cussed at length in Chapters 5 through 11. Chapter 12 describes the application of the EPA Smart- Way DrayFLEET Model to drayage issues and solutions. This guidebook is one end product of NCFRP Project 14, Truck Drayage Practices. The project was initiated at the urging of industry stakeholders concerned about shortfalls in drayage produc- tivity and a lack of solid analytic information on how those shortfalls might be remedied. The proj- ect benefited greatly from industry participation, notably in the provision of extensive data. Additional Port Drayage Resources TRB. The contractorâs final report for NCFRP Project 14 and its appendices are available on the accompanying CD-ROM and as an ISO image available on the TRB Web site (Go to http://trb. org/Publications/Public/PubsNCFRPProjectReports.aspx and look for NCFRP Report 11). Ports. Local port staff are a key source of initial information regarding drayage operations in and around each port. Port operations and environmental staff usually have contact information for leading drayage firms. Some port Web sites include directories of local drayage firms. Marine con- tainer terminals operator staff can usually identify the major drayage firms serving their terminal. Associations. There are three key organizations representing drayage firms, ports, and the inter- modal industry in general. ⢠Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference (American Trucking Associations)âwww.truckline.com ⢠The American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA)âwww.aapa-ports.org ⢠The Intermodal Association of North America (IANA)âwww.intermodal.org IANA also administers the Universal Intermodal Interchange Agreement (UIIA), which spec- ifies the terms of business for much of the port drayage industry. Many states and port areas also have local trucking or drayage company associations, which should be accessible through port staff. EPA DrayFLEET. The EPA SmartWay DrayFLEET Model was used for all of the emissions and cost modeling in NCFRP Project 14. DrayFLEET and accompanying documentation are avail- able free of charge through the EPA SmartWay Web site at http://www.epa.gov/otaq/smartway/ transport/partner-resources/resources-drayage.htm 4 Truck Drayage Productivity Guide