California Terminals Hope Fee Incentivizes Cargo Movement During Off-Peak Hours

Terminal operators at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports in California soon will impose a “traffic mitigation fee” to incentivize the movement of containers during off-peak hours. The fee -- announced Nov. 10 by the West Coast Marine Terminal Operator Agreement, a group of 12 container terminals in the L.A.-Long Beach region -- will be imposed Dec. 1 to Jan. 31, 2022, from 7 a.m. to 5:59 p.m. Monday through Friday. The terminals will charge $78.23 per 20-foot equivalent unit or $156.46 for “all other sizes of container for non-exempt international container moves through the terminals.” The fee is “subject to regulatory clearance” by the Federal Maritime Commission, the WCMTOA said.

John Porcari, port envoy to the Biden administration’s Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force (see 2108270025), and the two California ports' executive directors requested the fee to “incentivize increased use of marine terminal gates during off-peak hours,” the WCMTOA said. “The action is part of an overall effort to expand the use of warehouses, distribution centers, and trucking during the second and third shifts for the final push of holiday goods in December and into January leading to Lunar New Year.”

The WCMTOA said certain containers will be exempt, including empty containers, import or export cargo that transits the Alameda Corridor in a container and is subject to a fee imposed by the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority, domestic and transshipment cargo, and “loaded container moves through the terminals” from 6 p.m. through 6:59 a.m. Monday through Saturday and all day on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. “Empty chassis and bobtail trucks are also exempt,” the WCMTOA said.