VANCOUVER, BC—TSI Terminal Systems Inc (TSI) and DP World (Canada) Inc (DP World) will be offering night gate operations five nights a week at Port Metro Vancouver’s major container terminals, effective July 1, 2014.
The terminal operators say the additional operating hours will create just over 377 jobs (including direct, indirect and induced), reduce truck traffic and congestion during peak daytime hours, maximize the use of existing port infrastructure and create more opportunities for growth by offering a wider range of access times at the terminals for container truckers. These benefits will be achieved with no need for additional capital funding by the terminals or the governments.
“Canada’s Pacific Gateway is a significant driver of the Canadian economy. TSI and DP World want to continue to support the growth of Canadian trade, including exports of Canadian products as well as imports of goods Canadians need,” said Eric Waltz, president of TSI. “Introducing night gates will create more capacity for container activity, create long-term prospects for growth and will add more jobs over time.”
In order to ensure efficiency at the port, and to recover costs of additional operating hours, a daytime reservation fee will come into effect. The daytime fee will be set at a value for cost recovery only, while there will be no reservation fee required for use of the night gates. The amount and implementation of the fee will be determined in a transparent manner, including an initial study by a management consulting firm. This will align Vancouver with other leading port gateways around the world and follows best practices.
“It is important for us to address the issue of congestion around the ports and wait times for truckers,” added Maksim Mihic, General Manager of DP World. “By providing a financial incentive to move containers during the night we can reduce daytime traffic and create more efficiency at our ports. We will engage an outside consulting firm to confirm that assessed daytime reservation fees are set at a value to cover the actual costs of night gates.”
As of July 1, 2014 day gates for trucks will be operate from 08:00 to 16:30 and night gates will operate from 16:30 to 01:00. It will apply to TSI’s Vanterm and Deltaport terminals, and DP World’s Centerm terminal.
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