PierPass, the administrative organization set up by terminal operators in Los Angeles and Long Beach to collect the fees, announced the change Friday, saying that an audit of the program showed that the fee should be raised to cover the operators’ actual costs.
The fees are used to finance the labor, operational and administrative costs of the OffPeak night gate and Saturday gate operations at the two ports. PierPass said in a statement that it will regularly review the program costs and adjust the traffic mitigation fee as needed.
The first audit, conducted by industrial engineering firm the JWD Group, found that the initial fee wasn’t sufficient, PierPass President and Chief Executive Officer Bruce Wargo said. He added that the initial $40-per-TEU rate was based on a 2004 market analysis and in-depth consultation with marine terminal management, and was the best estimate possible in the existing business and trade environment.
For terminal operators, the program has been successful, as roughly one-third of all containers are now being moved at off-peak hours, compared to 10 to 15 percent before PierPass came into effect.
Additional information on the PierPass fee adjustment may be found in the document “TMF Adjustment Overview” available on the PierPASS Web site, http://www.pierpass.org