Terminal operators at Port of Oakland champion Saturday gate program

The four international marine container terminals at the Port of Oakland have announced they are developing a program to operate their terminal gates on Saturdays to reduce weekday congestion at the port.

The new program, called OakPass, is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of this year, pending review by the Federal Maritime Commission and other conditions.

The terminals, through the Oakland MTO Agreement (OAKMTOA), have submitted a filing to the FMC describing the proposed program. The terminals are currently working to ensure that an adequate supply of labor will be available to operate the new gates. OAKMTOA has established OakPass LLC, a not-for-profit company, to manage the Saturday gate program.

“The Port of Oakland and the four international container terminals agree on the need for additional capacity to reduce congestion and accommodate future volume growth,” says John Cushing, president of OakPass LLC. “After spending well over a year evaluating options including night gates, we determined that adding a Saturday gate is the most practical and cost-effective method to increase capacity in a way that meshes with availability of truck drivers and longshore workers and serves the entire supply chain.”

To help pay for the cost of the new gates, the terminals will begin collecting an Extended Gate Fee (EGF) of $17 per twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU), or $34 on a typical forty-foot container. The EGF will be assessed on loaded import and export containers entering or exiting the terminals during Peak hours, defined as Monday through Friday, 7:00 a.m. through 6:00 p.m.

No EGF will be assessed during OffPeak hours (Saturdays 7:00 a.m. through 6:00 p.m.). Empty containers and transshipment cargo will be exempt from the EGF, according to the filing submitted to the FMC. The EGF will be charged to the beneficial cargo owner, not to trucking companies or drivers.

OakPass is currently setting up the information systems and financial arrangements needed to collect, track and distribute EGF payments.

If and when OakPass begins operating Saturday gates, all cargo owners moving containers through the Port of Oakland will need to be registered with OakPass to pay the EGF on containers delivered or picked up during Peak hours. OakPass will provide registration instructions within the next several weeks at OakPass.com.

But this arrangement is far from a done deal, say shippers who oppose the added charges.

The National Retail Federation, National Industrial Transportation League, Waterfront Coalition and the Agriculture Transportation Coalition (AgTC) have also let the FMC know their members “have serious concerns.”

“It is not immediately apparent why there is a need to create a separate fee under a new name,” says AgTC executive director, Peter Friedmann.  “There is no particular reason that gates cannot be operated without a new and distinct fee. At some ports, terminals do operate at different times and on different days, without imposing a new fee. The cost of those gates is simply rolled into the general terminal fees, which can be increased or not, by the terminals under their current authority.”