Summer-fall peak season for holiday imports
The port authority said the appointment system will be a priority project this year and is expected to be in full operation well before the summer-fall peak season for holiday imports.
The system’s first phase had been scheduled to start in late 2014. Port officials decided to delay implementation after hearing from industry representatives at a port productivity summit last October.
“The feeling was that there were just too many other things that needed to get done first,” port spokesman Joe Harris said.
Truck appointments are part of a broad plan to make NIT more efficient. The appointments are linked to other improvements, including automated gates that went into operation in December and the installation of a Navis N4 terminal operating system.
The appointment system seeks to regulate the flow of trucks into NIT, reduce the “rush hour” effect at terminal gates, and spread gate moves more evenly throughout the day.
During busy periods, especially when gates open in the morning, truckers often face long queues that eat into drivers’ limited hours of service and make it difficult to complete multiple trips in a day.
Several U.S. ports are considering appointment systems as they seek to reduce turn times and increase capacity to handle larger ships and rising volumes.
In the Port of New York and New Jersey, GCT Bayonne plans to roll out an appointment system during the first half of 2015. A portwide Council on Port Performance is working to implement a truck management system recommended last year by a port performance task force.