Port of Long Beach Finding Innovative Ways to Move Cargo

Port of Long Beach Finding Innovative Ways to Move Cargo

This peak season, the ocean shipping industry is going through a period of consolidation and change, but the Port of Long Beach wants to assure you we’re moving your cargo more efficiently than ever before.

Our terminal operators have recently gotten creative in how we transfer your goods quickly to market, using new methods like “peel off piles” to move containers en masse out of the port to large customers. So what does that mean?

Normally, a trucker comes to our port and waits in a line while a longshore worker retrieves a container to place on a chassis. This takes up valuable time for everyone in the supply chain, because the process usually involves moving other containers in a large stack to get to the desired container.

Peel off piles eliminate these steps by identifying boxes on a ship destined for a big box retailer and setting the containers aside in a designated area. When the stack is large enough, a trucking company dispatches dozens of trucks to swarm the pile and get the cargo on its way to a destination. No need to wait in line, and no searching for the proverbial needle-in-a-haystack container.

Our operations are also improving on the infrastructure side. We’re in the midst of a 10-year, $4 billion modernization plan to build the Green Port of the Future here in Long Beach. It’s the largest program of its kind at any port in the nation and includes a $1.5 billion bridge that will carry 15 percent of U.S. container imports with the height to allow the newest ships to pass underneath. And there’s also our $1.3 billion mega terminal, known as Middle Harbor, the Western Hemisphere’s most automated and greenest. The first phase opened in April.

The Port of Long Beach wishes you a successful peak season, and thank you for continuing to make us your preferred gateway for cargo from Asia.