Long Beach Expands Storage to Fight Congestion

The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners last week approved the use of Port of Long Beach property as a temporary site for the storage of empty containers, which the port officials hope will help to free up needed equipment to move cargo out of shipping terminals faster and relieve cargo delivery delays.

The “Temporary Empty Container Depot” will be operated on 30 acres of a vacant, undeveloped area on the port’s Pier S on Terminal Island.

The temporary depot is expected to put back into circulation more of the chassis – the wheeled trailer-frames that trucks use to haul cargo containers. The temporary empty container storage depot will provide a location for truckers to deliver empty containers and remove them from a chassis, and then use the chassis to pick up and haul loaded containers to their destination.

The depot will be operated by a private company, Pasha Stevedoring and Terminals, under a permit that will expire at the end of March 2015.

“The depot could be ready to start accepting empty containers in two weeks, which would bring some needed relief to our tenants and the entire supply chain,” said Jon Slangerup, Port of Long Beach Chief Executive. “This will help correct the chassis supply imbalance.”

In addition to the depot, the port has identified a plan to operate its own chassis fleet for peak cargo shipping seasons and peak demand. Long Beach also facilitated the introduction by private chassis fleets of an additional 3,000 chassis into the local area.
Press Release