Cargomatic Free Flow program helping to increase throughput at POLA

As LM reported earlier this week, while things are moving in the right direction at West Coast ports, following months of slowdowns and backlogs, resulting from the nine-month labor dispute between the Pacific Maritime Alliance and the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU), more work needs to be done to eliminate the backlog and get things truly back to normal.

When the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) recently released its February volume statistics, POLA Executive Director Gene Seroka highlighted the progress it is making to improve cargo flow, including the port’s new interoperable chassis fleet and its “peel off” program. Another effort he cited is the work with Cargomatic, a Venice, Calif.-based company with proprietary technology that connects shippers and carriers through an app-based interface.

Earlier this month, Cargomatic announced it had formally rolled out its Cargomatic Free Flow program, which is geared towards reducing congestion at POLA, the Port of Long Beach, and other ports, too.

Cargomatic said that the Free Flow program kicked off in January at POLA’s West Basin Container Terminal (WBCT), with several retail carriers and shippers using the technology, which has reduced turn times at WCBT by up to 100 percent, with turn times down from 85 minutes to about 42 minutes.

As for how the Cargomatic Free Flow program works, company officials said that it allows containers from multiple shippers to be grouped together in designed stacks at the ports, and at that point the operating system alerts pre-vetted carriers when a container from that stack is available and tells them exactly where to look for it and where the container needs to go.

This in turn enables terminal operators to not have to search for one specific individual container, whereas they can pull a container off of the designated stack which Cargomatic said enables containers to be moved with more frequency and at a faster rate. And once a shipment is delivered, the Cargomatic app provides a truck driver with a list of empty containers to pick from in their local vicinity on the return trip to the port.

In an interview with LM, Cargomatic Co-Founder and COO Brett Parker said that Cargomatic’s work with POLA originated through the office of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Carcetti.

“They reached out to us through PierPass and POLA and wanted to see if we could work with the port to drive efficiency,” said Parker. “We met with a number of terminal operators there, and told them we believed our technology could facilitate a free flow program for the masses, with big and small shippers alike. WBCT quickly raised its hand and said it would like to be the terminal that drives the testing.”

Soon after that Cargomatic began meeting with WBCT officials to assess things and how they would work together.

For port terminal operators, he said it means they get to increase their efficiency through the “basics” of Free Flow, with a driver picking up a container is not looking for a specific container and instead is directed to the Free Flow stack and is given the first container off the top in what Parker described as a peel-off fashion.

“That process lent itself to 100 percent more efficiency and faster turn times, which is why terminal managers want to expand free flow,” Parker explained. “PierPass and its constituents are the terminal operators. They are interested in helping terminal operators expand, and POLA and POLB are pushing this, because they believe it is a great way to solve some of the problems the ports have been having and are likely to continue as bigger ships come in. You need to be able to increase efficiency and throughput, which this does.

The biggest benefit of Free Flow for shippers is that it enables them to get their freight quicker, assuming they are using Free Flow on a daily basis, according to Parker.

And on the carrier side, the main advantage for them with Free Flow is that it provides them with more turns, which translates into being able to do more with less drivers and also be more efficient with trucks.

“This prevents the need for more trucks to be added,” said Parker. “If you call a carrier right now, good luck getting the capacity. Also, drivers are leaving the industry, and the ones driving don’t want to go to the port because they cannot get the revenue on the trucks, which is not a good thing as we want people in the industry and not leaving it. That is why prices are going up, too. If a carrier can only make one turn, it now wants $900 for it, whereas before it was $450. We have got to get the turns back to a normal level so that the drivers can make their money.”

The Cargomatic Free Flow program is still in a test phase with WCBT and has been since January. Parker said several shippers have signed up, with more shippers and drayage carriers interested in doing so.

“Free Flow works, there is no doubt about it,” said Parker. “The difference between this program and what has been happening to date is that we want to be the operating system. And the software will permit multiple shippers, bigger and smaller, into single piles and multiple carriers. That has not happened before. It is kind of like a sharing economy at the port, which has never been able to manifest itself because of a lack of technology.”

The current goal for Cargomatic at POLA’s WBCT is to expand at a rate of 1,000 containers per week, followed by expansion to other POLA terminals and then out to other ports, said Parker. He added that the current amount of containers per week is in the hundreds, with a number of well-known shippers using the system, including Williams Sonoma, Perry Ellis, and Bass Pro Shops, among others. On the carrier side, he said the Triangle Group has been heavily active in the Free Flow program.