Street turn interest continues to grow

There is growing interest in interchanging equipment between importers and exporters at locations other than marine terminals and container yards.

   There is growing interest in “street turns” where equipment is interchanged between importers and exporters at locations other than marine terminals and container yards.
   The Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) has had a web portal that motor carriers can use to arrange street turns or street interchanges of equipment since 2016.
   It is used by motor carriers and steamship lines that utilize the Uniform Intermodal Interchange and Facilities Access Agreement (UIIA).
   There are currently five ocean carriers that participate in the program, some that use it nationwide, and some in certain parts of the country, according to Debbie Sasko, assistant vice president of information services at IANA. She said other companies have their own proprietary systems.
   Last year, the UIIA portal was used to arrange approximately 22,000 street turns that involve a single motor carrier and 1,250 street interchanges that involve two motor carriers.
   IANA explained how the portal, “Captures electronically the transfer of liability, damage and indemnification set forth under the UIIA from the originating Motor Carrier to the receiving Motor Carrier when a street interchange is performed.”
   IANA does not charge a fee for truckers to use portal, and ocean carriers determine individually if they will charge fees for street turns.
   The growing interest in street turn is evidenced by the announcement on Tuesday that Maersk will use the Avantida platform to offer street turn or container triangulation services in the U.S. and Canada. It’s the first move into the U.S. and Canada market by Avantida, which offers similar services in Europe and Mexico.
   Shane Bridges, head of equipment for North America at Maersk, said the agreement with Avantida is a way for his company to digitize street turn requests and handle them more efficiently.
   Currently, he said Maersk handles such requests by email. “Today, we have an army of people doing these things in India and it takes sometimes hours to get a response on whether or not you can street turn,” he said. It handles about 600 street turns per day in North America.
   Avantida will allow Maersk to give an immediate response, he said.
   Matchback Systems, which is based in Green Bay, Wis., has also been arranging street turns since late 2016, and each day, it is able to create 500 to 900 street turns.