Excerpts from the Journal of Commerce:
Commissioner William P. Doyle said an FMC team visited Southern California last week to view PierPass’ books and meet with terminal operators in the largest U.S. port complex. Doyle read the FMC briefing, and as of now, he told the annual JOC Port Performance Conference Wednesday, “I’m not seeing something that’s bad.”
The FMC’s scrutiny of the PierPass model is significant because it comes at a time when other large ports are considering ways to extend gate hours in order to prevent truck congestion caused by cargo surges from large container ships. Oakland filed with the FMC its plans for Saturday gate openings, and other ports such as New York-New Jersey are grappling with truck congestion problems, and a program of regular extended gates is being considered.