In an effort to decrease cargo congestion at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, 10 terminal operators plan to require truckers to make reservations to pick up shipping containers from the docks, according to PierPass Inc., the non-profit organization that operates terminal gates at the ports.
APM Terminals; Eagle Marine Services; West Basin Container Terminal; Seaside Transportation Services; Total Terminals International currently have appointment systems.

Five more terminals – Trapac; Long Beach Container Terminal; SSA Terminals; International Transportation Services; and Pacific Maritime Services – plan to introduce appointment systems in 2016 that will follow the same guidelines.

According to PierPass, the terminals have adopted an appointment system action plan and committed to a set of common requirements.
Appointments will be mandatory at all participating terminals and will apply to import containers at all terminals; all individual terminal appointment systems will be accessible via links from PierPass websites; and all appointments for exports are being evaluated as a “potential future requirement.”
For truck drivers, the appointment systems “are designed to add predictability to the supply chain. The variable queue lengths at different times of the day will be flattened out, which is expected to reduce the longer truck turn times,” said PierPass.