NEXT Trucking is opening a new drayage facility in a bid to speed up truck efficiency at the busiest seaport in the United States.
The 18-acre facility, which is about 10 miles from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, increases container capacity for NEXT’s Relay program, which is designed to maximize drayage efficiency, the company said in a statement. Relay also utilizes another eight-acre facility near the ports.
Trucks with clearance to enter the ports can shuttle containers to the new yard and bring empty containers back.
Relay addresses one of the biggest pain points facing port trucking – how to reduce driver detention and increase the number of turns that a driver can make in one day.
Detention times in the Southern California (SONAR: WAIT.LAX) market have come down since the import container rush of 2018, but still remain elevated at 124 minutes.
Detention costs shippers nearly $350 million annually, according to NEXT’s estimates. The delays stem from the increased size of container ships coming into U.S. and the limited number of truck drivers who are licensed to enter the ports.
NEXT said shippers in the Relay pilot program have seen a 167 percent increase in containers pulled with greater end-to-end visibility. With an increased number of turns per day, drayage drivers in the pilot program have seen their income increase between 20 percent and 50 percent.
“Relay has been tremendously successful in its pilot program, and with the new facility, we’ll further scale our approach to provide value for shippers and carriers,” said Lidia Yan, Chief Executive Officer at El Segundo, California-based NEXT.