Insights - March/April 2018 - 22

Moore elaborated, underscoring the importance of a key
issue that remains. "In addition to creating burdensome billing
challenges, the number one lack of progress is the motor carrier's opportunity to choose their equipment provider and contract
accordingly," he said. For example, tens of thousands of containers are returning to different terminals than they were released
from, resulting in a major problem with equipment disposition.
"Since the comprehensive report, the majority of ocean
carriers no longer own marine chassis," said Ron Joseph, chief
operating officer at Direct ChassisLink. "We expect the few that
remain will exit chassis ownership in the near future. We have
seen a few marine terminal operators prefer to have chassis
located off of their terminals and there has been an increase in
on-dock rail."

Motor Carrier Participation
Dave Manning, who chairs the trucker-owned NACPC that
began operations after the TRB report was released, identified
the issue of chassis choice, favored by truckers, as a key factor
in a transition that he said has "hit a wall."
"The chassis transition has slowed down considerably," he
said, while noting that truckers' issues with ocean carrier control
of chassis sourcing applies to some steamship lines, but not
all of them. "I would have thought there would be more truckerprovided wheels by now, through gray pools. Choice can be a
motivating factor to continue the evolution."
Others agreed.
Weston LaBar, executive director of the Harbor Trucking
Association in Southern California, said the majority of its
members believe chassis supply "is going to be more efficient

when the trucker has control of what type of equipment they are
using. If a trucker prefers a pool chassis, they want to be able to
do that. Or, if they bring their own, they want that freedom."
The future of motor carrier participation in chassis
provisioning was the only area where the TRB report missed the
mark. While the authors predicted that truckers would resist a
shift to greater ownership of equipment, there has been a push in
the other direction.
"The intermodal chassis industry is evolving, and the market
has changed quite a bit in the past several years," said Jeff Bader,
president of the Association of Bi-State Motor Carriers in the New
York area. "We've seen a trend towards motor carriers purchasing
their own chassis and entering into long-term leasing agreements, in order to mitigate the changes we've been experiencing."
Lovetro also said the ocean carriers' exit from the chassis
supply process is nearly complete and welcomed that development. "We'd like to see the steamship lines exit the chassis
supply process," he said. "We are a believer in the motor carrier
and BCO model."
Suppliers also highlighted the changes made so far.
"We have seen a huge growth in the chassis market. The
existing pool providers are growing their business, premium pool
providers are expanding, and so is the ownership market," said
Trevor Ash, vice president, sales and marketing at CIMC Intermodal Equipment.
Growth has occurred as domestic chassis customers shifted
to owned chassis sourced from CIMC after the ocean carriers exited the leased equipment market, Ash said. On the marine side,
both the pools and individual carriers are acquiring chassis at a
pace greater than the replacement of older equipment.

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Insights - March/April 2018