Port of Long Beach to add new chassis to fleet

In a bold move to solve the shortage and imbalance of truck chassis, the Port of Long Beach plans to beef up the fleet in the coming weeks.

“This current peak congestion crisis is something that was avoidable,” said Port of Long Beach Chief Executive Jon Slangerup, “and we are taking the necessary steps to prevent any such problems from happening again.”

The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners, at its Oct. 13 weekly meeting, directed port staff to develop plans for purchasing and providing thousands of truck chassis for congestion relief during peak periods.

“We’ve been facilitating discussions about chassis issues for some time,” added Slangerup. “Working with the Harbor Commission’s port efficiency subcommittee, we determined that the root cause of the current congestion crisis is the lack of chassis to support peak-level volumes – and no one else was stepping up to address this critical problem.”

Slangerup, who was appointed port chief last summer, is a veteran corporate executive with extensive experience in global logistics. This may be the first indication that he will find innovative ways to solve existing problems.

The Board of Harbor Commissioners has established a subcommittee chaired by Commission Vice President Rich Dines, working with Commissioner Lori Ann Farrell, to focus on port efficiency.

At the urging of Slangerup, port staff was directed by the full Harbor Commission to come up with a proposal within 30 days to obtain additional chassis.

If needed, the port would prepare to establish an organization to purchase, service and manage a pool of supplemental chassis to provide relief whenever there is a shortage of privately owned chassis.

One of the key issues identified is a mismatch between supply and demand. Some privately operated terminals have an adequate supply of chassis while others are critically short.

As reported in LM, this imbalance is causing severe congestion at some terminals, particularly during peak shipping periods.