LONG BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The West Coast MTO Agreement (WCMTOA) today provided an update on measures underway to mitigate the effects in Southern California of the continued surge in cargo impacting global supply chains. WCMTOA comprises the 12 international container terminals serving the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach.

These measures include:

• Empty Return Program – WCMTOA is working with the Harbor Trucking Association and trucking companies to assist with getting empty containers, and the chassis the containers are mounted on, back to the marine terminals. The program allows trucking companies with excess empty containers stored at their facilities to work with WCMTOA members collectively to return those containers to terminals accepting them on behalf of the containers' owners.

• Peel-Off – WCMTOA will review current practices at its members’ terminals to identify opportunities to increase peel-off pile operations, which allow high-speed pickups of large groups of containers that have been presorted into a specific block. Peel-off piles work similar to a taxi queue, with each arriving truck picking up the next container in the peel-off pile, rather than each truck requiring a specific container to be located and retrieved. Other such opportunities may work in conjunction with both the Empty Return Program and the Warehouse Outreach Program.

• Warehouse Outreach Program – This new program will provide a means for the marine terminals and the warehouses that use the ports to identify issues impacting cargo fluidity between them and to address potential solutions. These solutions could include a warehouse-focused version of the Empty Return Program aimed at returning empty containers and chassis to the terminals, as well as coordinating peel-off piles.

• Appointment System Technologies – WCMTOA members continue to improve the technical systems used to manage their appointment systems. WCMTOA has begun an internal review of terminals’ uses of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that enable direct connections between terminal operating systems and trucking company operating systems. For those terminals not using APIs, further study will be conducted regarding a potential common portal for appointment systems.

• Short-Haul Train Study – In light of the challenges associated with getting imports picked up at the terminals to make space for arriving ships, WCMTOA plans to initiate a study to determine the costs, feasibility, and benefits of short-haul trains to provide service to a regional location for pick-up and delivery.

• Chassis Demand Study – WCMTOA will analyze chassis inventory levels throughout the year to determine periods when additional chassis should be stockpiled to avoid service shortfalls.

About WCMTOA

Cargo growth in the early 2000s through the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach created congestion on the roadways and freeways surrounding the ports. To address the congestion issues, the container terminal operators in the ports formed the West Coast MTO Agreement (WCMTOA) in 2004. Since their formation, the WCMTOA members have launched a number of programs to reduce congestion and pollution and increase security.

For more information, please see www.wcmtoa.org

Paul Sherer, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.