Harbor truckers in Los Angeles-Long Beach sincerely want terminal operators to succeed in their ground-breaking plan to develop a system of appointments throughout the harbor. But they fear that the logistics involved in coordinating as many as a dozen stand-alone trucker appointment systems will be very difficult to arrange.
Truckers’ are concerned that due to numerous marine terminals and their various operating systems, a rigid operating environment will bethe end result. They contend this won’t allow motor carriers and their drivers to adjust on the fly to the many glitches that occur daily at most large ports, and therefore will not achieve the true port congestion reductions the terminals hope for.
In fact, an appointment system established by the terminal operators last year at Port Metro Vancouver continues to struggle with the problems caused by a lack of integration among the terminals, and the Canadian program involves only four container terminals.
