Oakland International Container Terminal (OICT), the largest terminal operator at the Port of Oakland, that handles 70% of the port’s containerized cargo, has advised that the extended gate hours will be made permanent. The permanent night gates will be from 6pm to 3am, Monday through Thursday. The extended hours are paid for via a $30.00 fee on all containers handled by OICT.
OICT had started a three month trial of extended gate hours on June 27, the trial showed that night gates took pressure off of the busier daytime operations, easing congestion and allowing for cargo to move faster.
The night gates have led to 1,300 daily container transactions moving from day to evening, with average transaction turn times for drivers falling from 96 minutes in August, to 79 minutes as of last week.
TraPac terminal at Oakland is currently experimenting with extended gate hours, but has not yet decided if they will make their extended gate hours permanent.
Oakland is the second U.S. port following Los Angeles – Long Beach in having regular weeknight and/or weekend gate hours.
The extended gate hours do come at a cost, while the Port of Oakland has set a flat $30.00 fee on all container moves, regardless if day or night, the Port of Los Angeles – Long Beach took a different tact.
PierPass at Los Angeles – Long Beach was put in place in 2006 to manage their extended gate hour program. A traffic mitigation fee is applied for all peak daytime hour moves, while off-peak and weekend gates are not charged a fee. The fee is periodically adjusted to keep in line with longshore labor costs, and is currently at $140.98 per 40 foot container.
