Groundbreaking Study Provides First Comprehensive Measurement of Truck Queuing and Visit Times at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach
Turn Time Study Executive Summary
PierPass Inc. and Ability/Tri-Modal Transportation Services Inc. released the results of a study that uses Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking to provide a common language and set of facts that the port community can use to discuss truck queuing and terminal visit times at the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
The study evaluates three time periods: queue time, spent waiting in line outside the gates; terminal time, measuring from the entry gate to the exit gate; and visit time, the sum of queue and terminal time.
Key findings of the study include:
- The median queue time in October was 20 minutes and the terminal time 31 minutes, for a total median visit time of 51 minutes.
- The vast majority of visits take less than two hours: 27% are under 30 minutes, 58% under an hour, 75% under one and a half hours, and 86% under two hours. A further 12% of visits take two to four hours, and 1% to 2% of visits take between four and eight hours.
- About 91% of queue times were under an hour.
- The median queue and visit times include trucks that choose to arrive early to wait for the 6:00 p.m. OffPeak to start.
- The study found that daytime visits are shortest for trucks that arrive at 15:00. Median visit time for trucks arriving between 15:00 and 16:00 was 45 minutes, while for trucks arriving between 17:00 and 18:00 median visit time was 90 minutes, reflecting the 17:00 meal break.
- When cargo volumes rebounded in the spring and summer of 2010, terminal operators opened additional service hours to hold down congestion. Those investments proved effective: while cargo volumes increased 6% from May to October, visit time decreased 13%, the study showed.
- For the longest 10% of visits, the improvement from May to October was even better, at 15%.
The Truck Turn-Time Stakeholder Group (TTSG) was formed in July 2010 to address concerns about visit times. It includes representatives of trucking companies, marine terminal operators, cargo owners and the two ports. TTSG is co-chaired by Wargo and Joshua Owen, president of Ability/Tri-Modal Transportation Services Inc., a trucking, warehousing and distribution company.
PierPass contracted Digitical Geographic Research Corp. on behalf of TTSG to conduct this study, with funding from PierPass, Ability/Tri-Modal, the Port of Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles. It relied on GPS devices installed in about 250 trucks at the ports under a research project funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration.
Read more about the turn time study:
“The Port of Long Beach Supports Upcoming Turn Time Study”
March 31, 2011
“The Port of Los Angeles Supports Upcoming Turn Time Study”
February 25, 2011
“Turn Time Study in Progress”
February 8, 2011
