Port of Oakland to provide shippers with daily status reports

Another indication of how U.S. ports are paying closer attention to shipper’s needs was signaled today by the Port of Oakland, as it announced its new update service.

Beneficial Cargo Owners (BCOs) are being aggressively courted by port authorities nationwide in an effort to secure their business and attract new carrier calls. The latest example of this trend, is “Port of Oakland Today,” a blog post containing daily terminal and berthing information.

This development comes at a time with Oakland has been reaching for vessel operators to make its gateway the “first port of call.”

At last week’s Bay Planning Coalition’s 2015 Decision Makers Conference,  Oakland’s Maritime Business Development Manager Beth Frisher said shippers should regard the port as a full service logistics center.

Currently, a 360-acre trade and logistics center is being built by the port and City of Oakland on the former Oakland Army Base.

“It’s envisioned as a magnet to attract additional import and export cargo,” says Frisher.

Also underway, is a railyard at the site to be followed by new transload warehouses. When completed, commodities shipped in bulk can be transferred to containers for export out of Oakland and imports can be transloaded into 53-foot domestic containers and then placed on rail cars for inland shipment.

Frisher says the new capabilities could convince shipping lines to make Oakland their first U.S. call. All the top container carriers have weekly services in Oakland now, but stop first in Southern California.

Two other projects in the planning stage are expected to generate more cargo growth, Frisher adds. One is a cold-storage facility; the other is a grain transload operation. Both would permit bulk shipments of agricultural products such as beef and grain to be transferred from rail to containers for overseas delivery.

“With these facilities and our Class 1 rail connections, we’re providing a direct link to the farm belt,” Frisher says.