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New Web Tool Could Ease Port Congestion
As terminal operators face stiff penalties in California for allowing trucks to idle at terminals before loading or
unloading at docks, application service provider SynchroNet Marine, Inc. is launching a new service at the Port of Oakland to help ease
that congestion IMB 4/1/02, p.7).
The new service, dubbed SynchroMet, allows trucking companies to select the most advantageous "street-turns" for container interchanges,
said SynchroNet spokesman Stephen Banbury.
In the normal course of business, truckers must drive to the port to pick up empties, dray the empty to the shipper, and make the
return trip to bring the full container back to the port for export. But because both shippers and trucking companies are often located
some distance away from the port, the distance that trucks have to dray empties to the shipper creates significant "air" truck miles.
For this reason, street-turns - street locations where truckers finished with a delivery leave an empty container for another trucker
to pick up - have become a common way to cut down on those wasted miles.
But this requires trucking companies to call around to other trucking companies in the area to coordinate the street-turns.
According to Banbury, over 800 trucking companies serve the Port of Oakland, making efficient coordination a daunting task.
Enter SynchroMet, which provides a platform for trucking companies to log in, review and select opportunities for mutually beneficial
street-turns. Users can track containers by unit numbers and provide confirmation of the street-turn to terminal operators and steamship
lines. "It gives visibility for assets outside of the port," said Banbury.
The cost to trucking companies with a fleet of no more than 20 trucks is $40 a month, rising to $80 a month for fleets of 150 trucks.
The monthly cost is paid for with one or two turns, said Banbury.
The Port of Oakland is supporting the new SynchroMet release, which is its first phase.
"The Port of Oakland is committed to assist in the development of innovative tools that will improve efficiencies for the port
community," said Tay Yoshitani, executive director of the Port. "SynchroMet will provide trucking companies and shipping lines with
a real-time communication tool and technology platform that can help to reduce road congestion in the port and surrounding Bay community."
In phase II of the program, SynchroMet will be linked with SynchroNet’s flagship SynchroBox product. SynchroBox provides an efficient
communications and information platform for different container owners - such as ocean carriers and container leasing companies - and
improves asset utilization. Shipping lines currently spend between $12-15 billion a year repositioning empty containers, a cost that
SynchroBox helps reduce, said Banbury.
Once the two Synchro products are linked, SynchroBox users will have container visibility all the way to the street level, said Banbury.
To sign up for a free trial of Intermodal Business go to www.energyargus.com.
Intermodal Business offers key insights and analysis on U.S. surface intermodal transport. The publication was designed with help from companies
in the industry and is designed to help shippers and service providers take advantage of industry trends and save costs or win new business.
Only Intermodal Business regularly tracks container and trailer availability in key intermodal hubs. In addition, users benefit from seeing
the perspectives of all parties to an intermodal move: railroads, IMCs, shippers, draymen and equipment providers.
This article has been reprinted from the Intermodal Business Magazine, April 29 2002 edition with the kind permission of Argus Media Ltd.
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