Issue link: https://jocdigital.uberflip.com/i/1095037
April 1 2019 | The Journal of Commerce 17 www.joc.com West Coast Ports Cover Story Special Report THE PORT OF Long Beach is deter- mining whether to follow the lead of Los Angeles and form a partnership with GE Transportation for its Port Optimizer platform, or stick with an existing port community system, raising questions about how much data the port community needs and how much money users are willing to pay for that data. These questions are important for all major US container ports as they consider developing information por- tals to combat congestion problems caused by 12,000-TEU vessels and larger, operated by carriers in three Harbor Trucking Association (HTA). Weston LaBar, CEO of the HTA, said Los Angeles-Long Beach is the most complicated US gateway in which to operate. Served by 12 marine terminals, all three ocean carrier alliances, and 1,400 trucking companies, the complex cries out for a "single aggregation point" to accumulate and dispense data on cargo status. However, if truck- ing companies, which operate on slim margins, are going to sign on, technology providers must present a clear business model that o ers value to subscribers, he said. "If you charge a trucker a dollar, you better save him two dollars," LaBar said. At many ports, BCOs, truckers, and other service providers lose track of containers once they are discharged from the vessel, so the data points required on individual containers include customs release status; available trucking appointment slots and whether the appointment can be made via the platform; and any fees due, such as demurrage, and whether they can be paid via the platform. vessel-sharing alliances, with dozens of trucking companies and multiple chassis providers operating in an increasingly complex supply chain. It's a dilemma for Long Beach be- cause four of its six terminal operator tenants already are using a platform provided by Advent/eModal. They say the eModal port community system is providing port users with the shipment data they need. eModal has operated its system at East and West Coast ports for almost 20 years. Benefi cial cargo owners (BCOs) and transportation companies agree that real-time visibility into the status of containers will help to mitigate congestion at the largest US port complex, which last year han- dled 17.5 million laden and empty containers. The average container dwell time in Los Angeles-Long Beach in January was 4.3 days, a full day longer than in December, according to the Pacifi c Merchant Shipping Association, and turn times in January averaged 98 minutes, compared with less than 80 minutes for most of 2018, according to the The volume of data and who will foot the bill are just two considerations as Long Beach considers information platforms By Bill Mongelluzzo orp stock / Shutterstock.com Single portal, multiple concerns