CLEAR THE WAY

And the introduction of new laws addressing marine terminal congestion in places such as California, with large fines for those responsible, is forcing terminal operators to tackle the problem of congestion at terminal gates. Cathy Hayward investigates.

“H aving trucks backed up outside the yard is not good news for anyone, ” says Todd Tatterson, business development director at Tideworks Technology. “By sitting idle while waiting to go into the terminal, the trucker and his vehicle are losing money while the cargo could potentially be damaged by long delays; and a bottleneck at the gate means that the port is not acting efficiently or to its full capacity and is therefore also losing money. It’s a waste of everyone’s time.”

Gate congestion is usually caused by the sheer volume of containers coming into the yard, explains Tatterson. And this is compounded by poor information which means that each truck can spend several minutes (or longer) at the gate. For example, the truck might have an incorrect booking number, the import load might not be cleared or there may be fees or charges to pay on it. Either way this causes congestion.

Nico Berx, sales manager at Cosmos agrees. “There is a major lack of communication at the gate, ” he argues. “Many of the trucks and goods that arrive are not sufficiently documented. The paperwork is not complete so they need to sort it out and this can be a lengthy process.” Depending on the size and sophistication of the port, this can mean that other trucks cannot move into the terminal until the problem is sorted out. At other ports there are problem-solving areas where the trucks can go while the paperwork is being completed satisfactorily.

This type of troubled transaction can lead to trucks being turned away from the terminal says Yung Chen, product manager of WebAccess, a Navis solution to reduce gate congestion. “If a truck shows up and then has to hang around then that adds to the congestion and if a truck is turned away from the terminal then that’s even more congestion, and frustration, for absolutely no benefit.

PRE-MAPPING THE CONTAINER “If the terminal knows in advance that truck ABC is turning up at this time to pick up container XYZ then the yard manager can prepare things ahead of time, ‘ she says. The terminal can enter information about the container into the system such as the container number, its content and destination which allows the terminal to pre-map the container – the yard manager can decide where to place the container in the yard so as to ensure the quickest turnaround. It allows them to manage the yard better which improves the flow of containers and trucks. “If the terminal is a pipe then the gate can be a symptom of a chokepoint if that yard is not managed efficiently, ” adds Chen.

But Berx points out that many of the problems are external and not in the yard manager’s control. For example there can be additional customs checks, police checks or narcotics tests which delay everything, but the yard cannot necessarily plan for that.

Increased environmental awareness by town planners and governments around the world is increasing pressure on terminals to improve traffic flow into their ports. No municipal body wants to see trucks backed up outside their local terminal gate, potentially causing obstruction to other traffic and belching out fumes. And some go even further. In July 2003 the state of California introduced the Lownenthal Act which fines marine terminals $250 for each truck which has to wait at a terminal gate for more than 30 minutes. The aim of the legislation is to reduce pollution and congestion but it has also increased the use of appointment systems and other technology to improve the flow of trucks into the yard.

Some sort of scheduling system is a must to avoid having trucks backed up says Berx. “Congestion is such a hard thing to plan. One morning the port can be very quiet and the next morning it can be overrun with trucks. An appointment system helps terminal operators plan for these peaks and troughs.”

Appointment systems are in widespread use on the US West Coast and throughout Asia. Not only do such systems mean that every trucker in the area is not trying to get into the terminal gate at the same time, but that the terminal operators can have the right equipment in the yard waiting for them so the boxes can be transported from the truck quickly and efficiently without waiting for the equipment to either become available or to be moved from where it was working before.

It also gives the terminal prearrival information to speed up the traffic flow through the gate. For example contents of the container, license plate number, container serial number, demurrage details and booking status can all be confirmed before. This allows truckers to check whether a booking is valid before they arrive at the gate. So no more waiting in problem-solving areas or being turned away.

Web-based products enable trucking company dispatchers, brokers, freight forwarders and other parties in the logistics chain to get the information they want when they need it. All of which means faster gate turn times – one terminal reduced the queue into the yard from an average 30 minutes to 15 minutes merely by introducing a pre-booking system.

Some products, such as the Visual Gate System (VGS) from Cosmos, physically speeds up the trucker’s progress through the gate by using cameras and optical character recognition to automate the gates. The system records the license plate and container number and matches it to documents it already has. It also examines the containers to check for damage. Not only does it increase throughput but terminals do not have to expand their infrastructure as they grow – the solution allows a single lane set up for several gates.

Easing the flow of trucks into the terminal is just one benefit of this type of technology. By using WebAccess from Navis, Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) increased throughput at the Port of Savannah by 20% and improved truck turn times by 34% for example.

But the GPA also saved $200,000 a year in reduced customer service relationship costs. Tom Armstrong, CIO at GPA, estimates that without Navis WebAccess, an additional five full time employees would be needed to handle the workload currently done by the 10 person customer service team. Customers have real-time terminal transaction data, such as load and discharge lists and stow plans, at their fingertips 24 hours a day. The number of calls to GPA’s customer team has fallen by 70% as a result, he explains.

REDUCING TROUBLE TRANSACTIONS Reduction in trouble transactions not only saves the customer service team time, but gate clerk processing time as well.

Booking/EDO numbers, vessel schedules, discharge ports, and container availability are checked before the trucker arrives at the terminal. Issues are resolved ahead of time.

And by becoming more efficient Armstrong estimates that with the same number of gate and yard clerks, GPA’s capacity can increase by 38%. “We can continue to develop Navis WebAccess to benefit all users of the port with one goal in mind – faster and more efficient operations by turning data into information, information into knowledge and knowledge into action, ” Armstrong concludes.

Brooks Royster, CEO of POMTOC, which operates in the Port of Miami, is also buoyant about the benefits of software to reduce gate congestion. He recently deployed Tideworks’ Forecast product and claims that it bridges communication gaps between the terminal, its customers and the many participants in the transportation chain.

“The positive impact the system has had on terminal operations is significant in terms of customer service improvements, cost reductions and operating efficiencies. It is changing the way we do business as terminal operators.”

Tideworks’ Tatterson is confident about the benefits of gate software. “Yes it makes the gate, and the rest of the terminal, more efficient; yes it drastically increases throughput, reduces delays and frustration; and yes it can save the terminal money by reducing staff costs and time. But the main benefit is that these systems are just so easy for the terminal’s customer to use that they want to keep on using them – it makes delivering or collecting goods from a terminal such a simple process, that it gives the terminal which uses them, a huge competitive advantage.”