Intermodal shippersÆ buy-in key to SoCal port fee
The head of the company designated to collect fees on containers to support the Southern California ports' clean truck program said Thursday that a major hurdle to clear is making sure intermodal cargo owners are aware of the program.
Bruce Wargo, president and chief executive officer of PortCheck, spoke to American Shipper in advance of the program getting underway Feb. 18, and said that while most Southern California area shippers are well aware of the program, that's not the case for much of the intermodal cargo that passes through Los Angeles and Long Beach on its way to inland U.S. destinations.
'The challenge is getting the message to the intermodal cargo owners outside of Southern California,' he said. 'It's getting them to get online and claim their cargo.'
Beginning Feb. 18, all containers collected by trucks deemed not in compliance with clean air standards will be charged a $35 per TEU fee (or $70 per typical 40-foot container). Wargo said he estimates only about 8 percent of the 14,000 drayage trucks operating in Southern California are clean enough to be exempt from the fee.
The collected fees would then go to replace older trucks with newer, cleaner models.
Cargo owners can either pay the fee in advance by credit cargo on the PortCheck Web site or at the gate. Wargo said the advance fee collection would be much more preferable.
The program was originally supposed to get underway Oct. 1, but technological problems with the electronic fee collection system necessitated a delay. There were also legal challenges to the program, most notably by the American Trucking Association, whose request for an injunction on the program was denied.
The Federal Maritime Commission has also voiced concerns over the program, and its review period for comments on the program is due to end Friday. Wargo said the new start date for the program was intended to come after the FMC comment period had ended.
'The FMC wanted us not to collect fees until the review period ended,' he said.
He said that technological issues have mostly been sorted out after the system's Web applications underwent stress tests. For shippers, the fee collection system will look much like that of the PierPass system, a program that collects fees from cargo owners whose containers move out of the ports during daytime weekday hours. Those registered for PierPass have been automatically registered for PortCheck, as the two programs will share one Web site address.
'There are legal requirements that will force us to keep the two payments separate,' said Wargo, who is also president and CEO of PierPass. 'But we're trying to make the interface easy for cargo owners to pay one fee, then the other. It's a duplicate of the architecture of PierPass.'
Both PortCheck and PierPass are non-profit organizations set up solely to collect the fees and distribute the money as intended. In the case of PortCheck, it will go to the port to be spent on new trucks. With PierPass, the money is redistributed to terminal operators to pay for operations during off-peak hours.
Wargo admitted that terminal operators have voiced their concerns over the clean truck fee collection program.
'The terminal operators are always very concerned about the legal issues surrounding the program,' he said. 'The approach we've taken is to be mindful of the law but to move forward with the ports' clean air plan. The reality is the legal issues are going to be months in the future, and the ports feel the program needs to get started soon.'
When asked whether the program was putting the terminal operators in the position of disobeying their landlords or the FMC, Wargo said the ports have decided that collecting the clean truck fee is part of the terminal operators' tariff agreement, subject to any future legal decisions that might come.
Another issue to be mindful of is that those opposed to the program might very well seek to stop it through another injunction request before the fees are collected Feb. 18.
Wargo, however, said he is planning for all systems go on that date.
'I think we have a very solid chance of have a reasonable outcome on Wednesday,' Wargo said. ' Eric Johnson
