On Monday, global shipping and logistics giant CMA CGM announced plans to introduce an Early Container Pickup Incentive Program at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in California. Effective December 1, the cash incentive program will remain in effect for 90 days in a bid to “improve the fluidity” of the United States’ largest import gateway, which has been beset with snarls due to global covid-19-related shipping bottlenecks.
Ports in southern California have become severely congested, with freight movement having slowed dramatically across all transport modes, leading to exceptionally long container dwell times.
The incentive will be provided to the importers that pick up their containers via merchant haulage from all the terminals in Los Angeles and Long Beach in the first eight days, with the intent that they will use it to offset costs incurred by tensions on their supply chains. CMA CGM is offering $100 per container for daytime pickup from Monday to Friday, and $200 per container at night and on weekends. The company says this commitment could exceed $22 million over the 90-day period.
Additionally, CMA CGM will financially support the Fenix Marine Services terminal in expanding their hours of operation so that containers can be picked up day and night 7 days per week.
In response to what it describes as an “unprecedented” North American shipping demand spike, and increased pressure on capacity and ports since covid-19 began, CMA CGM has to date added 14 extra loaders and increased the number of available chassis by 5X since the onset of the pandemic. The company says it also plans to increase capacity by up to 16 percent to and from the United States in the coming months.
“The CMA CGM Group is committed to doing everything we can to assist in improving overall supply chain velocity in southern California,” said Ed Aldridge, President of CMA CGM and APL North America. “By incentivizing the movement of containers off the terminals and ensuring pickups can be made on nights and weekends at FMS, we will decrease truck turn times and expedite the flow of goods into the United States. This is just one more way we are working with our port partners and the Biden-Harris Supply Chain Task Force to ensure shelves are full and Americans have access to the vital items they need on a daily basis.”
In 2020, CMA CGM transported nearly 21 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) containers via a fleet of 545 vessels, serving more than 420 ports on five continents. In the U.S., the company is headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, where it also has a subsidiary, American President Lines (APL), which operates a fleet of U.S.-flagged vessels and supports U.S. territories and American military stationed around the world.
