WCMTOA Agrees to Adjust TMF as Part of National Supply Chain Initiative

At the request of the Biden-Harris Administration Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, the West Coast MTO Agreement (WCMTOA) announced that it will again adjust the OffPeak program in response to the Task Force’s national supply chain analysis. The Task Force considers the PierPass OffPeak program as one link in the complex national supply chain that can assist with the objective of getting the entire supply chain to operate 24/7.

On Nov. 10, in response to an earlier request from the Task Force, WCMTOA announced that the Traffic Mitigation Fee (TMF) would be temporarily adjusted to $78.23 per TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) between Dec. 1 and Jan. 31, and would be charged only on weekdays during the daytime shift. Under this temporary adjustment, filed in November with the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), the TMF was scheduled to revert to its previous levels after the holidays on Feb. 1. That change took place today, with the rate returning to $34.21 per TEU or $68.42 for all other sizes of container and payable throughout all hours of terminal operation. Under this version of the program, traffic is mitigated to the off-peak shifts using appointments.

On Jan. 21, the Biden-Harris Administration Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force’s Port Envoy requested that WCMTOA continue efforts to incentivize more truck trips to the off-peak shifts by continuing to waive its TMF during the second and third shift operations. Regulatory review requires a period of time for the FMC to review the request. Therefore, subject to regulatory clearance by the FMC, the rate will once again change on Feb. 14 to $78.23 per TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) and will be charged only on weekdays during the daytime shift.

Under the original PierPass OffPeak Program established in 2005 to mitigate severe traffic congestion around the ports, incentive pricing (charging a TMF for weekday, daytime container moves) was used to enable and drive traffic to new night shifts. After extensive consultations with supply chain participants, OffPeak 2.0 was introduced in 2018 to address supply chain requests that the program mitigate traffic with appointment systems instead of incentive pricing. The change also sought to eliminate the problematic truck bunching that occurred between shifts with the previous program.

Containers exempt from the TMF include empty containers, domestic and transshipment cargo, and import cargo or export cargo that transits the Alameda Corridor in a container and is subject to a fee imposed by the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority. Empty chassis and bobtail trucks are also exempt.

PierPass is a not-for-profit company created by marine terminal operators at the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach to address multi-terminal issues such as congestion, air quality and security. The West Coast Marine Terminal Operator Agreement (WCMTOA) is filed with the Federal Maritime Commission and comprises the 12 international MTOs serving the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports.

For more information, please see www.pierpass.org.