The Port of Oakland Favors Saturday Operations at its Marine Terminals

The port of Oakland may be opening its doors on Saturdays to additional marine terminal operations, as expressed by a recent letter from Chief Executive Officer Chris Lytle addressed to the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC). That same letter outlined two obstacles which must be resolved in order to achieve this goal: the labor shortage which has currently slowed vessel loading operations; and identification of the fee to fund Saturday operations, which must be reasonable and exclusively related to extended operations.

“The Port strongly supports additional gate hours,” Mr. Lytle said. “There are, however, several points for the Commission to consider.”

The reasoning behind extending marine terminal operations to Saturdays is to ease congestion and improve efficiency at the leading Container port in Northern California. Pursuant to proposed amendments to the Oakland MTO Agreement, extending gate operations enables harbor truckers to pick up containerized imports for delivery, drop off exports or return empties while the inclusion of offsite locations to collect empty containers and a common pool of available chassis could further improve efficiency. The proposed amendments would create Oakpass, LLC, which will administer, collect, and utilize a new cargo fee designed and implemented with the single goal of offsetting the additional costs of keeping the port open an additional day every week.

The Port of Oakland called for a review of the Saturday program after one year of operation.

Source: Port of Oakland

 
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