The new Terminal Information Portal System (TIPS) will provide information on container availability, export booking status and more.
The Port of New York and New Jersey Tuesday launched a central web portal that enables users to check container availability and export booking status as well as obtain information on terminal-specific news such as extended hours, holiday schedules or row closures at the port’s container terminals.
According to a statement from the port, the new Terminal Information Portal System (TIPS) is the first of its kind in the United States.
The port authority said users of TIPS will also be able to easily link to terminal websites from the central web portal to obtain information on empty container return locations and vessel schedules.
TIPS is a new service provided by Sustainable Terminal Services, Inc. (STS), a nonprofit corporation owned by most of the port’s terminals. The system was developed in response to a recommendation in 2014 by a Port Performance Task Force to give port users a central website to access information that will enable them to streamline their business processes. Its development was guided by the port’s Council on Port Performance, which was set up to implement the task force recommendations.
STS has previously developed and implemented the RFID-based truck identification system designed to enhance security and the environmental quality of the port area. The TIPS functionality is available to truckers, beneficial cargo owners and other service providers through a secure login at the PortTruckPass website.
The Port Authority said TIPS will eventually provide interactive functionality for empty container return locations and vessel schedules, but that STS wanted to deliver the central system in advance of the peak shipping season to assist port users.
“Effective information management is critical to an efficient intermodal supply chain. TIPS will help optimize logistics planning and information sharing in the port,” said Molly Campbell, Port Commerce Department director for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and chair of the Council on Port Performance.
Bethann Rooney, assistant director of the Port Commerce Department, said the new system is “definitely going to make business easier for people to do” in the port.
She said the port also hopes that the system, if used properly, will help “reduce the number of trouble ticket transactions,” and eventually reduce congestion and improve turn time for truckers at the port. The port has also published a trucker resource guide to help truckers avoid problems such as trouble tickets.
About 10 percent of all gate transactions at the port result in trouble ticket transactions, which can arise when, for example, a trucker shows up to pick-up a container and demurrage has not been paid or a container is unavailable because it is being detained for an inspection by a government agency such as CBP or a terminal is not yet accepting export containers for a particular ship.
These kind of problems means trucks can take more time to pass through the main gate and to resolve at a trouble ticket or trucker service window at the terminal.
“There should be no reason in this day and age for the top causes of trouble tickets to even exist any longer because the information is there,” said Rooney. “If someone does their homework in advance you wouldn’t have those issues with those transactions.”
Rooney noted this kind of information is available today from individual terminals, and “they are not using it. So we hoping that by consolidating it in one location and making it easier for them there should be a positive outcome.”
Through the TIPS portal, users will also be able to create watch lists of import containers they are expecting at any of the six container terminals in the port and receive updates via email when the status of these containers changes or a hold is placed or released on containers.
Jeff Bader, president of the Association of Bi-State Motor Carriers and member of the port performance council said, “the consolidation of information in a single website will help simplify work for truck dispatchers and availability clerks.”
“From a terminal operator’s perspective providing a tool that facilitates the receipt and delivery of containers and helps the port’s customers, as well as their customers and service providers better utilize their resources is a plus,” said John Atkins, president of GCT USA, which operates container terminals in Bayonne and on Staten Island.
The idea of a port community system is not a new one in the Port of New York and New Jersey — the port introduced a community system called “FIRST” that went live Sept. 10, 2001.
The effects of the terrorist attacks the next day and concerns about port security, however, caused it to be shut down.
Port officials have said in the past that the portal would be precursor for any sort of truck management system
and ultimately any sort of an appointment system.
The port said TIPS is user friendly and very intuitive, but that a series of brief web-based demonstrations has been scheduled for all port users that may be interested.
The demonstrations will be held on Thursday, September 3rd at 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM; Tuesday, September 8th at 1:00 PM and Tuesday, September 15th at 1:00 PM. All times are Eastern Standard Time (EST). To RSVP and receive login information, please contact Inga Berryman with your name, affiliation and desired session.
Port of New York/New Jersey launches terminal portal
