(PTI) With a quite astounding eight to ten thousand TEU often discharged at LA per port
call, how are you keeping pace with your operations?
(Gene Seroka) The maritime industry is undergoing profound change and as we see larger ships put into water-borne
deployments in the pacific trade, we have to be proactive in the way we manage the
cargo through the conveyance process. Part of that is our approach today. Three
areas of focus: land use, process management and bringing technology to
the port complex. Staying ahead of the game has been a hallmark of the Port of
Los Angeles's strategy for many decades and as we see this evolving trend in the
industry, we will continue to work based on these theories moving forward in a
collaborative effect with our stakeholders.
(PTI) How has the Port of LA bounced back since the congestion issues experienced in the winter of 2015?
(Gene Seroka) Shortly after the longshore Labor and Pacific Maritime Association tentative
labour agreement was reached on February 20th, our flagship terminal APMT Pier 400
was able to work three 13,000 TEU ships concurrently during a traditional nine
shift work week which created 34,000 moves of containers which to this day is
still a North American record. I think that exemplifies the capabilities that
we have here at the Port of Los Angeles and the preparedness that is gone into
this ever-changing industry.
(PTI) In the past year we've seen the deployment of ships in the 10-13,000 TEU range - these are the largest ships calling in
the US - how have you dealt with them at the Port of LA, and what challenges have
you overcome? (Gene Seroka) The challenge is how swiftly we can move cargo through our port
complex, we don't want to hold up the supply chain, so through feedback, focus
groups and conversations we've had with our wide network of stakeholders and
friends in the industry, we've come up with three important elements that need
to have continued focus on his land use
use the larger ships are calling terminals that were designed two decades
ago for vessels half the size that are calling here today that means if we need
to repurpose land knocked down fences create additional back plans for our
customers here at the Port of Los Angeles those of the creative ideas that
were bringing today
secondly process management managing this large amount of cargo at one
snapshot in time is truly a challenge we need to have cargo sequentially loaded
at origin or what we call in the industry
blocks tote in order to make our job here at the port of La more efficient if
we have to resource cargo while we're on the ground that takes up precious time
that the be CEOs don't necessarily have within the supply chain so by bringing
new ideas for process management in the conveyance system to the table for the
industry to evaluate and two tests right here at the port of La we see that is
gaining traction as well thirdly technology there's a company just up the
freeway in Venice California Gold Card nomadic they have developed an uber like
trucking system for the less-than-truckload market and in fact
it's been in place for more than three years they've extrapolated that
technology to the container market we've been testing the cargo Matic opportunity
here now for several months at our West basin container terminal early results
are very encouraging basically they're taking an application that draws on
truck capacity here in the harbor area to pick up the first available container
the unique aspect is as the driver delivers the cargo to the customer's
facility they get paid online this is a first ever for our industry quick 180 is
a company that has developed a virtual container yard to match import
containers with exporters container requirements this also can increase
fluidity at our gates because we're matching container needs off property
and saving time to move leading cargo
in addition the us- Department of Transportation is introduced and tested
its previous system for route optimization right here at the Port of
Los Angeles we have many more opportunities in the technology area and
I'm very very interested in how we can continue to blend this new technology
into the supply chain