Technology in testing could lead to hourly surcharges at NY-NJ Ports

Source: www.joc.com

Port truckers at the Port of New York and New Jersey will soon test an application measuring their wait times both inside and outside container terminal gates, providing visibility that could be the basis of an hourly surcharge to drayage customers.

The information provided by the use of Realtime Drayage and other similar applications will allow truckers to show their customers detailed records of their waiting times at the second-busiest U.S. gateway for containers.

Over the next two weeks the Association of Bi-State Motor Carriers will carry out a trial of the app involving 100 trucks, Bill Maro of Realtime Drayage said at a meeting of the Port Drivers Association on Saturday. The app has previously been tested by 10 drivers at GNG Trucking, will cost truckers $9 a month to use, and can also be used to meet the electronic logging device mandate when it takes effect in 2017, he said.

While there are already metrics for how long trucks wait inside terminals, the inability of truckers to track and record their waiting times outside terminal gates, and bill customers, has been a source of frustration for harbor drivers. By providing the statistical groundwork for an hourly surcharge for the time truckers spend waiting to enter a terminal, drivers could greatly increase their earning potential, Edisson Villacis, who heads up the PDA, said.

Shippers would be willing to pay those fees if they had visibility over time spent waiting and evidence to justify such chargers, Maro said.

The money truckers earn could help the port meet its goal of eliminating pre-2007 engine model year trucks from the truck pool serving the port, by putting more money into truckers’ hands and making it easier for them to invest in new equipment, Villacis said.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey recently revised its program when it became apparent that it would be impossible to push ahead with its original goal of banning pre-2007 model engines from the port by Jan. 1, 2017, as those models make up 70 percent of the trucks serving the port.

Dustin Braden, Assistant Web Editor, JOC.com | Jan 18, 2016 11:58AM EST