Terminals willing to operate evenings and weekends, but where are the trucks?

VANCOUVER, B.C. -- Trucks are moving again at the Port of Vancouver's container terminals, but the backlog of containers remains sitting on the docks as truckers fail to take advantage of extended operating hours.

According to reports from the port's container terminals, more than 1,000 reservations were booked at Deltaport last Saturday, but only 400 transactions were completed. Similarly low Saturday volumes were also reported at the port's other two terminals. On Monday and Tuesday afternoon, the proportion of completed reservations was even lower, so the terminals discontinued the extended hours of operation.

"The low number of completed reservations means that trucking companies are booking the appointments during extended hours, but their drivers are not showing up," said Jim Cox, Vancouver Port Authoritys Vice President, Infrastructure Development. The port's container terminals want to open on Saturday, but need assurance that the trucks will be there.

"We need support and co-operation from all stakeholders so that we can move local imports off our terminals and resume normal operations. That means a commitment from truckers to work some additional hours until the backlog is cleared. Without this co-operation, we will continue to see excessive volumes backed up at our terminals and people and businesses will continue to suffer. The VPA and its terminal operators are willing to do whatever is reasonably required in order to alleviate the current problem, but that won't be possible without the active participation of all stakeholders, particularly the truck drivers," said Cox.

Approximately 9,000 containers (15,300 TEUs*) continue to be held up at the lower mainlands container terminals. An additional 2,000 containers (3,400 TEUs) are at the ports of Seattle and Tacoma, waiting for the Vancouver backlog to clear before they are loaded aboard ships destined for Vancouver. The port estimates that at the current rate the backlog will take more than a month to clear up, while successful extended hours initiatives could have it removed in a fraction of that time.

The Vancouver Port Authority is warning that the impact of not addressing the container backlog in a timely way will result in a continued inability to accept Canadian export cargo, as well as delays in delivering import cargo to customers.

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*TEU stands for twenty-foot equivalent unit and is the industrys standard measurement for containers.



For more information, please contact:

On Thursday, August 11, 2005:
Duncan Wilson
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and Public Affairs
Tel 604.665.9067
Cel 778.231.6991
duncan.wilson@portvancouver.com

On Friday August 12, 2005:
Anne McMullin
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and Public Affairs
Tel 604.665.9069
Cel 778.231.6978
anne.mcmullin@portvancouver.com

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