Truck drayage is an integral part of the intermodal freight transportation system. The most visible drayage sector is at seaports, where dray drivers spend a considerable amount of time waiting to enter marine terminals and then often operate in non-productive ways while inside the terminal gate. This leads to increased truck idling, resulting in air pollution and congestion on the roads leading into terminals. Diesel emissions from idling trucks are a serious health concern for communities adjacent to seaports, especially deepwater ports. In 2006, the Waterfront Coalition held a series of workshops to examine this problem. The conclusions reached at the workshops were that there are numerous inefficiencies in the drayage system that could be corrected if the parties had a better understanding of the time drayage truck drivers spend queuing to enter marine terminals and the locations of bottlenecks in terminal operations. However, until now there has only been anecdotal information from drayage truck drivers about the length of time they spend in queues outside the terminal gates and the underlying causes of delay. Under NCFRP Project 14, the Tioga Group, with the assistance of the University of Texas at Austin Center for Transportation Research and the University of South Carolina Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was asked to (1) use evidence-based research methods, as well as truck driver surveys, to identify and quantify bottlenecks within marine terminals and (2) develop a guidebook that identifies potential metrics for truck drayage productivity and improvements that stakeholders can make to increase throughput, reduce emissions, improve freight mobility, and increase driver productivity at marine terminals nationwide. NCFRP Report 11: Truck Drayage Productivity Guide presents a compendium of metrics designed to give port authorities, marine terminal operators, drayage firms, and regional transportation planners the tools to improve drayage productivity and capacity while reducing emissions, costs, and port-area congestion at deepwater ports throughout the United States. The guide is especially valuable because of the variety of evidence-based research methods (including gate camera analysis, analysis of transaction databases, and automated vehicle location geofencing techniques) used to identify and quantify the impact of inefficiencies in port drayage. The guide identifies and quantifies the impacts of bottlenecks, associated gate processes, exceptions (trouble tickets), chassis logistics, congestion, and disruption at marine container terminals. The impacts are described in terms of hours, costs, and emissions that were estimated using the Environmental Protection Agency’s DrayFLEET model. The guide, with an accompanying CD-ROM containing the contractor’s final report and appendices (unedited by TRB), includes a set of recommendations for industry stakeholders (i.e., shippers, receivers, draymen, marine terminal operators, ocean carriers, and port authorities) designed to address inefficiencies, control costs, and reduce associated environmental impacts of truck drayage. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting