Using congestion pricing to encourage cargo owners to move shipments during off-peak hours, PierPass claims to have eliminated costly bottlenecks at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. It says it has also helped reduce gridlock on area freeways and improve air quality by reducing truck idle times.
While PierPass was celebrating its achievement, a Drewry Shipping Consultants report indicated on-time performance for ocean carriers has dropped. Fewer than 50% of container ships arrive on time, according to Drewry’s “Container Shipper Insight” survey. The 46% on-time performance in the latest quarter compares with 57% in the fist two months of 2006.
The survey indicated 23% of ships arrived one day late, 11% were two days late, and 6% were three days late. Only 8% were five or more days late. Drewry also considers early arrival at variance with on-time, but only 1% of ships arrived two days ahead of schedule.
Drewry records data on 20 trade routes worldwide for the survey, covering 2,144 arrivals by more than 60 carriers.
