California Calculations

International operator Hutchison Port Holdings, already with port interests in Mexico, is one party known to be looking at new port development together with various logistics operators in order to establish “cargo pipelines” into the US.

There are two main proposals under consideration – the reduction of free time by one day, to four days for imported containers and by one day from seven to six days for export containers. Further, as part of the import process the ports are considering initiating the free time clock once a container is landed rather than once the vessel working has been completed.

Terminal operators are also aggressively pursuing significant improvements in throughput as the result of the implementation of new technologies, enabled by the 2002 ILWU contract.