Southeast ports, carriers sign on to plan to upgrade chassis pool

[Mike]

Five stakeholders have signed a memorandum of understanding establishing the South Atlantic Chassis Pool 3.0, which will serve the region starting in October 2023.

SACP 3.0 will be based on a single provider pool model, and it will upgrade and expand the existing pool. It will have 60,000 chassis available to truckers, beneficial cargo owners, ocean carriers and port users, said a Monday announcement by the Ocean Carrier Equipment Management Association (OCEMA), Georgia Ports Authority, Jacksonville Port Authority (JAXPORT), North Carolina State Ports Authority and Consolidated Chassis Management (CCM). The memorandum solidifies plans previously mentioned last July.

The group hopes that the refurbishment and replacement of chassis via the pool will improve fluidity while meeting container capacity needs for the region. Over 75 locations in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina will have access to SACP 3.0.

Southeast ports, carriers sign on to plan to upgrade chassis pool

The South Atlantic Chassis Pool 3.0, will be ready in October 2023 and will have 60,000 chassis available.

www.freightwaves.com

 

[Electric Chicken]

I tried to join UIIA and to get a compatible packet my insurance would have went from 12 grand a year to 30 grand a year. Just because of that dumbass chassis pool coverage that isn't covered by regular trailer interchange.

I don't want to help them that bad, and might explain why no one else does either.

Other than the equipment itself.

 

[Rigjockey]

I always found that to be a weird dynamic when I was down south, shipping lines having their own chassis.
Here most container trucking companies come to the rail with their own chassis to have cans loaded/unloaded.
The rail does have some chassis for their own domestic containers that they rent out.
But if you are picking up a 20,40, 45 Maersk, Medship, Zim etc, you bring your own chaissis. Its a BYOC (Bring Your Own Chassis) party.

We didn't have any 45' foot chassis so we would put a 45' can on a no gooseneck 40' chassis.

 

[Electric Chicken]

I always found that to be a weird dynamic when I was down south, shipping lines having their own chassis.
Here most container trucking companies come to the rail with their own chassis to have cans loaded/unloaded.
The rail does have some chassis for their own domestic containers that they rent out.
But if you are picking up a 20,40, 45 Maersk, Medship, Zim etc, you bring your own chaissis. Its a BYOC (Bring Your Own Chassis) party.

We didn't have any 45' foot chassis so we would put a 45' can on a no gooseneck 40' chassis.

Up here the rail doesn't own the chassis either. Some third party does. JB and Schneider got smart and bought all their own new ones. XPO tried to get smart but they did it dumb. They bought old ones from the third party. The worst of the worst. Probably ones they were about ready to scrap.

JB and Schneider got away from the junk, improved their up time, attracted drivers with new equipment, and saved money.

XPO did it just do save money, not to do any favors for their drivers. Since they're all owner ops XPO doesn't care about wasted fuel or downtime.

 

[Mike]

XPO did it just do save money, not to do any favors for their drivers. Since they're all owner ops XPO doesn't care about wasted fuel or downtime.

So, when you pick up a container, obviously you have to inspect the chassis. Is that before or after the container is loaded on it?

If the chassis has problems, obviously that has to be fixed before running it. Do you have to get that done immediately, or simply grab another chassis to get loaded?

Finally, as an owner operator, are you charging the broker for that downtime if you have to babysit the chassis, or are you simply out of luck in that scenario?

 

[Electric Chicken]

So, when you pick up a container, obviously you have to inspect the chassis. Is that before or after the container is loaded on it?

If the chassis has problems, obviously that has to be fixed before running it. Do you have to get that done immediately, or simply grab another chassis to get loaded?

Finally, as an owner operator, are you charging the broker for that downtime if you have to babysit the chassis, or are you simply out of luck in that scenario?

I haven't done it since getting my own authority so I'm honestly not aware of how it would work that way.

When I was leased to XPO you pulled through a repair shop if it had problems and they would fix it and bill XPO. The problem there was the wait times. You could be the 12th one in line and it's like waiting on a Blue Beacon with only one bay. The chassis were always preloaded.

I didn't get to charge XPO for the downtime.

My biggest beef was the tires. Bias plies, a shitty recap that's so obviously poorly made it's going to peel off once you get rolling but they wouldn't replace it unless it was already flat or peeling off.

I had a 7 way connector that didn't work but since it wasn't visibly broken they wouldn't replace it. They said do something about that. So I destroyed it with a hammer and they said that'll do and replaced it. I don't know who's decision it was but they couldn't replace anything that wasn't visibly damaged.

Sometimes you could do a chassis swap if it's something not repairable "quickly" like a landing gear that's mangled or a bent frame or whatever but only when the crane crew was there and when they actually had chassis available. If that couldn't happen you just park the load and tell them what's wrong because you're not taking it that day.

I had also on occasion been able to get the crane crew to swap chassis for smaller things when the shop wasn't open but they were on site, but it wasn't normal procedure.

Again I have no real desire to get back into it, hence the balking at the insurance hike. If it was another grand or whatever I'd do it on occasion as filler work. My shoulder has a much better time with good condition dry van landing gear, easy pull sliders, and single latch shoulder height doors. Not to mention new radial tires with those auto air pressure things.

My career sortof went:

USX - almost no problems with equipment.
Schneider - occasional problems with equipment.
DDI/XPO - daily problems with equipment
Authority - no problems with equipment.