As schedule reliability becomes a major factor for shippers keen to ensure that their cargo reaches its destination on time – sometimes superseding price considerations - one shipping major is taking a “carrot” approach to help maintain schedule integrity.
French line CMA CGM has announced that it will introduce an early container pickup incentive programme at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
At one stage last month, there were more than 60 box ships waiting to berth at the ports, which are said to handle about 40% of America’s inbound goods. In pre-Covid days, they would record maybe one ship waiting to offload.
The incentive will take effect tomorrow (December 1), and continue for 90 days, in an effort to improve the fluidity of the largest import gateway in the United States.
“Ports in southern California are suffering from severe congestion, and freight movement has been dramatically slowed across all modes of transport, leading to exceptionally long container dwell times,” says the line.
“The incentive will be provided to the importers that pick up their containers via merchant haulage from all the terminals in Los Angeles and Long Beach in the first eight days, with the intent that they will use it to offset costs incurred by tensions on their supply chains.”
The incentive will be:
- US$100 per container for daytime pickup from Monday to Friday;
- US$200 per container at night and on weekends.
The line’s commitment could exceed US$ 22 million over 90 days, according to a statement.
