The JOC says the recent truckers’ strike in Vancouver, BC, ‘served as the flashpoint of an emerging drayage crisis that’s adding hundreds of millions of dollars to shipping costs and threatening the growth of intermodal commerce’ and concludes that ‘any solution to the drayage problem will require cooperation among terminal operators, longshore labor, chassis suppliers, container lines and shippers as well as drayage companies and truck drivers. And those parties will have to be open to new ways of doing business and new technology.’ Port of Long Beach photo
Drayage problems have been covered in depth in the Journal of Commerce. Click on the titles to read the full articles:
What’s the Cost of Drayage? It Depends
Drayage operators say rates generally slipped during the 2009-10 recession and are flat or slightly above rates of about three years ago.
Pricing has been held in check by fierce competition in a business with many seat-of-the-pants operators. However, that could change as equipment costs and safety requirements boost barriers to entry.
“With everyone concerned about capacity in 2014, you may see more increases than you’ve seen over the past three years,” said Michael Burton, president of C&K Trucking.
In Drayage: Employee-Driver Battle Rages On
Teamsters union officials are hailing a National Labor Relations Board district office’s ruling as a breakthrough in their effort to prove port drayage drivers should be classified as company employees.
Attorneys for trucking companies say the Teamsters’ victory dance is premature. They say the facts in each case are different, and they note the NLRB settlement stated that it “does not settle any other case(s) or matters.”
There’s little question, however, that port trucking will continue to be roiled by controversy over alleged misclassification of owner-operators, who comprise the majority of port container haulers.
What’s Needed to Ease Drayage Gridlock? Cooperation
The (recent Vancouver truckers) strike served as the flashpoint of an emerging drayage crisis that’s adding hundreds of millions of dollars to shipping costs and threatening the growth of intermodal commerce.
There’s no quick fix for that delivery process, in part because so many parties have a say or a role in how containers flow from ships through ports to inland destinations. Any solution to the drayage problem will require cooperation among terminal operators, longshore labor, chassis suppliers, container lines and shippers as well as drayage companies and truck drivers. And those parties will have to be open to new ways of doing business and new technology.