PierPASS Inc. is a not-for-profit company created by the West Coast MTO Agreement (WCMTOA) member container terminal operators at the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach to address multi-terminal issues such as congestion, air quality and security. PierPASS launched the OffPeak program in 2005 to reduce severe cargo-related congestion on local streets and highways around the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports. OffPeak established regular night and Saturday work shifts to handle trucks delivering and picking up containers at the 12 container terminals in the two adjacent ports.
PierPASS developed OffPeak as a market-based solution to what was then a critical public problem: after a rapid rise in cargo volume in the early 2000s, drayage trucks were causing severe congestion on the roads and highways and in the neighborhoods around the ports, while thousands of idling trucks caught in this traffic every day added to air pollution. The ports came under strong community and political pressure to find a solution. OffPeak nearly doubled the potential capacity of the ports without requiring taxpayer funding or waiting years for new infrastructure construction. As an incentive to use the OffPeak shifts and to cover the added cost of the shifts, a Traffic Mitigation Fee (TMF) is required for most cargo movement at the two ports.