Preparing for a monster delivery

To handle those massive loads, shipping lines must use giant freighters that are too big to dock anywhere else on the West Coast. Once here, 75 percent of the cargo is loaded onto trucks and hauled to destinations nationwide.

“Those volumes are threatening the logistics complex now. They did that last year and they did it this year,” Wargo said.

Traditionally, manufacturers and retailers begin ramping up around midyear for the upcoming back-to-school season and string of holidays at the end of the calendar year. The demand for finished products manufactured overseas and raw materials begins to pick up in July and peaks in the weeks before Christmas.

Terminal operators at the ports devised the OffPeak program last fall, after the ports were caught short-handed and struggled to move incoming cargo bound for Christmas sales. Delays in unloading ships resulted in lengthy waits for truckers.

The congestion also aggravated concerns about pollution from idling diesel truck engines and traffic jams on already clogged freeways around the ports.

Since then, more dockworkers have been hired and meetings have been held to pitch the OffPeak program to nervous shippers and truckers.

Two weeks from the start date, many in the industry still aren’t convinced the change will work.

While some large clients such as Wal-Mart maintain after-hours operations to handle shipments, many small and mid-sized firms don’t have night crews or warehouse space to handle late deliveries. Those companies will have to pay the higher daytime fees or find trucking firms that can pick up and store their cargo at night.

A major adjustment will also be necessary among the roughly 14,000 independent truck drivers who haul cargo from the ports and get paid based on the number of deliveries they make.

Despite assurances that evening shifts will involve less freeway traffic and allow more trips to warehouses, some drivers said they won’t work nights unless they’re paid more. Others said they won’t take any late shifts at all.

“My kids go to school in the day. When am I going to see them?” asked driver David Zepeda, 39, of Riverside. “I’m working for my family. I’m never going to see my family.”

Coyle hopes to attract drivers by offering them most of the $50 fee he plans to charge clients for each load moved during off-peak hours.

Wargo, however, warned that if trucking companies impose such nighttime surcharges, shippers might lose the incentive to move cargo at nonpeak hours.

“If nobody decides they want to work evenings, then we’re going to have an issue of how to provide for the future in this port complex,” Wargo said.

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