Local Ports Increase Cargo-Handling Fees
Come June 1, the cost to load or unload a 40-foot container from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will go up by $70.
The new fees were approved by the Port of Long Beach on Dec. 17 and by the Port of Los Angeles on Dec. 20. The money will help pay for a $1.6 billion program to eliminate polluting trucks from the port area by 2012.
“This is a long-term investment in the region,” said Art Wong, a Port of Long Beach spokesperson.
Apparel and textile importers seemed unphased by the new fees, which include a $35 fee for a 20-foot container. “It’s not really going to affect anything,” said John Clark, executive vice president of production and import administration for Paul D’Avril Inc., a Los Angeles apparel maker that does most of its manufacturing in China. He said the added fees pencil out to only a few cents per garment in extra cost.
But it could be just the impetus that some apparel manufacturers need to change their shipping strategy to ports outside of California. “We are obviously studying it and determining the impact,” said Tiffany Moffatt, a spokesperson for giant retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in Bentonville, Ark. “We have been meeting with the ports to gather information.”
Freight fowarders have been aware for some time that the fees would probably go up. “This thing has been in the works for so long, it is not a surprise,” said Enrico Salvo, chief executive and founder of Carmichael International Service, a Los Angeles freight forwarder and customs broker with a number of apparel clients. “Slowly all of California’s ports are going to be in the same boat. I feel that some of the East Coast ports are going to follow what we are doing. I think most ports are going to have to clean up the air, and California is always avant-garde in these matters.”
The special cargo fee will help pay for the Clean Air Action Plan, approved one year ago by the ports. The goal is to remove all old trucks picking up cargo at the ports. The program, to be phased in by 2012, aims to rid the ports of all trucks older than 2007 models. The goal is to reduce truck diesel emissions at the port by 80 percent.
Truckers, many of them independent operators who own their rigs, and trucking companies have objected to the plan. They believe the ports don’t have the authority to force truckers and companies to purchase new trucks.—Deborah Belgum
