HONG KONG: Reducing the amount of time that truckers spend waiting in line and being processed at North American marine terminals and off-dock facilities will have a larger impact on improving overall supply-chain efficiency than any other area, according to a study by a Vancouver transportation consultant.
Philip Davies, principal at Davies Transportation Consulting, studied truck calls in Vancouver and Los Angeles-Long Beach. He concluded that although reducing delays throughout the supply chain from marine terminals, along congested roadways and on to inland storage yards and rail facilities is needed, the biggest bang for the buck in streamlining the supply chain is to reduce delays in processing trucks at the terminals.
Davies’ survey of Vancouver’s operations found that drivers spend 52 percent of their time at terminals. He modeled a reduction in the average and standard deviation of turn times at facilities — marine terminals, off-dock empty container storage yards, import/export transloading facilities and intermodal rail terminals. “A reduction of 50 percent at the on-dock and off-dock terminals alone would increase loaded trips per hour by 19 percent, and a reduction of 25 percent at all terminals would increase loaded trips per hour by 13 percent,” he concluded.
Dan Smith, principal at the Tioga Group, said Davies’ analysis highlights the main reason for port congestion in this era of big ships, which is densification of terminal operations. In Vancouver, Canada’s largest container port, and Los Angeles-Long Beach, the largest U.S. port complex, the shift in recent years from storing inbound containers on wheels (chassis), due to space constraints, to stacking boxes in the container yards, has increased how many times dock labor must touch each container. This adds time and cost to the supply chain, Smith noted.
