LONG BEACH, Calif., Feb. 22, 2022— PierPass today provided a preliminary 2021 financial summary of the OffPeak Program, which provides night and weekend truck gates at the marine terminals in the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. PierPass manages the OffPeak Program on behalf of the West Coast MTO Agreement (WCMTOA).

The OffPeak Program takes truck trips that would otherwise occur during peak daytime traffic hours and moves them to less-congested nights and weekends, reducing traffic congestion on roads and highways and increasing total throughput capacity of the ports. Since 2005, the OffPeak Program has diverted more than 51 million trucks away from Southern California commuting hours.

In 2021, the net OffPeak Program costs were $348.4 million to operate 2,832 OffPeak gates. In 2021, the OffPeak Program collected and distributed $303.9 million in Traffic Mitigation Fees (TMF) to the WCMTOA marine terminal operator members to cover part of the OffPeak gates’ costs. An additional 489 gates that were not included in the WCMTOA published tariff were operated during non-peak hours and are not included in the OffPeak Program’s cost.

PierPass is a not-for-profit company created by marine 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. The West Coast MTO Agreement is filed with the Federal Maritime Commission and comprises the 12 international MTOs serving the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports. For more information, please visit www.pierpass.org.

PierPass Customer Service Number: 877-863-3310

The West Coast MTO Agreement filed a request with the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC ) to amend the agreement at the request of the Biden-Harris Administration Supply Chain Disruption Task Force.  In the amendment request, WCMTOA stated that it was doing so because it was WCMTOA’s understanding that the Biden-Harris Administration Supply Chain Disruption Task Force has been monitoring all elements of the supply chain on a national level, and has a broader perspective than is available to the marine terminal members of WCMTOA.

Subsequent to the amendment filing, WCMTOA has been providing statistics to the FMC about gate activity and terminal operations on a weekly basis.  Those statistics did not support the requested changes attempted to incentivize offpeak traffic through pricing.  Therefore, WCMTOA will rescind its amendment and return to the OffPeak program, also known as “2.0.”

LONG BEACH, Calif., Feb. 1, 2022—At the request of the Biden-Harris Administration Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, the West Coast MTO Agreement (WCMTOA) announced that it will again adjust the OffPeak program in response to the Task Force’s national supply chain analysis. The Task Force considers the PierPass OffPeak program as one link in the complex national supply chain that can assist with the objective of getting the entire supply chain to operate 24/7.

On Nov. 10, in response to an earlier request from the Task Force, WCMTOA announced that the Traffic Mitigation Fee (TMF) would be temporarily adjusted to $78.23 per TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) between Dec. 1 and Jan. 31, and would be charged only on weekdays during the daytime shift. Under this temporary adjustment, filed in November with the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), the TMF was scheduled to revert to its previous levels after the holidays on Feb. 1. That change took place today, with the rate returning to $34.21 per TEU or $68.42 for all other sizes of container and payable throughout all hours of terminal operation. Under this version of the program, traffic is mitigated to the off-peak shifts using appointments.

On Jan. 21, the Biden-Harris Administration Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force’s Port Envoy requested that WCMTOA continue efforts to incentivize more truck trips to the off-peak shifts by continuing to waive its TMF during the second and third shift operations. Regulatory review requires a period of time for the FMC to review the request. Therefore, subject to regulatory clearance by the FMC, the rate will once again change on Feb. 14 to $78.23 per TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) and will be charged only on weekdays during the daytime shift.

Under the original PierPass OffPeak Program established in 2005 to mitigate severe traffic congestion around the ports, incentive pricing (charging a TMF for weekday, daytime container moves) was used to enable and drive traffic to new night shifts. After extensive consultations with supply chain participants, OffPeak 2.0 was introduced in 2018 to address supply chain requests that the program mitigate traffic with appointment systems instead of incentive pricing. The change also sought to eliminate the problematic truck bunching that occurred between shifts with the previous program.

Containers exempt from the TMF include empty containers, domestic and transshipment cargo, and import cargo or export cargo that transits the Alameda Corridor in a container and is subject to a fee imposed by the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority. Empty chassis and bobtail trucks are also exempt.

PierPass is a not-for-profit company created by marine 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. The West Coast Marine Terminal Operator Agreement (WCMTOA) is filed with the Federal Maritime Commission and comprises the 12 international MTOs serving the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports.

For more information, please see www.pierpass.org.

PierPass Customer Service Number: 877-863-3310

LONG BEACH, Calif., Jan. 18, 2022—The West Coast MTO Agreement (WCMTOA) today reminded port users that the Traffic Mitigation Fee (TMF) at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will return to its pre-December rate on February 1, 2022.

On November 10, WCMTOA announced that the TMF would be temporarily adjusted to $78.23 per TEU between December 1 and January 31, and would be charged only on weekdays during the daytime shift. The temporary change in TMF levels and rules was intended to create a financial incentive to move more containers during off-peak hours by charging a TMF only during peak hours.

At the start of February, the TMF will revert to $34.21 per TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) or $68.42 for all other sizes of container for non-exempt international container moves through the terminals at the ports, and will again be payable throughout all hours of terminal operation.

WCMTOA worked with the Port Envoy to the Biden-Harris Administration Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, as well as the Executive Directors of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, in an effort to address challenges with links in the supply chain. The temporary change was put into place as the goods movement community entered the final holiday push in December followed by the January period leading up to Lunar New Year.

Over the course of the seven weeks since the TMF’s temporary adjustment was implemented, and with outreach to the entire supply chain and all of its users, the proportion of gate activity during the day shift versus the night shift did not change from where it has been averaging since 2018.

Under the original PierPass OffPeak Program established in 2005 to mitigate severe traffic congestion around the ports, incentive pricing (charging a TMF for weekday, daytime container moves) was used to enable and drive traffic to new night shifts. OffPeak was modified in 2018 to address supply chain requests that the program mitigate traffic with appointment systems instead of incentive pricing. The change also sought to eliminate the problematic truck bunching that occurred between shifts with the previous program.

Containers exempt from the TMF include empty containers, domestic and transshipment cargo, and import cargo or export cargo that transits the Alameda Corridor in a container and is subject to a fee imposed by the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority. Empty chassis and bobtail trucks are also exempt.

PierPass is a not-for-profit company created by marine 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. The West Coast Marine Terminal Operator Agreement (WCMTOA) is filed with the Federal Maritime Commission, and comprises the 12 international MTOs serving the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports.

For more information, please see www.pierpass.org.

PierPass Customer Service Number: 877-863-3310