Productivity: Georgia, Hamilton, Virginia

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The Georgia Ports Authority has updated its search engine for manufacturing and logistics sites to make it more comprehensive and easier to access. The Hamilton Port Authority’s online shipping portal, www.marinegateway.net, is a cargo-capacity matching service that helps make marine shipping easy and convenient.

Georgia: GPA Revamps Commercial Corridors Tool to Facilitate Manufacturing and Logistics Site Searches

The Georgia Ports Authority has updated its search engine for manufacturing and logistics sites to make it more comprehensive and easier to access. The GPA’s web-based Commercial Corridors Tool now works on all platforms, including mobile devices. Users may now search for available land or buildings by any of several criteria, such as:

• Property type
• Real estate listing
• For lease or sale
• Size
• Interstate or highway corridor
• Location
• Distance to port or rail facilities
• Tax credit tier

Additionally, users can now toggle between aerial photos and maps showing buildings and land.

"Those who are considering Georgia locations can also now bookmark for later review sites on four main corridors: I-95, I-16, Savannah River Parkway or Highway 341," said Cliff Pyron, chief commercial officer at the GPA. "By working with partners such as Georgia Power to share data, the listings are now more extensive and updated more frequently."

Hamilton: Marine Gateway Online Portal Ready for 2014 Seaway Season

The Hamilton Port Authority’s online shipping portal, www.marinegateway.net, is a cargo-capacity matching service that helps make marine shipping easy and convenient. The portal identifies unused vessel capacity for cargo owners and freight forwarders to consider.

When shipping lines have room available aboard vessels traveling to or from Hamilton and global destinations, they can post their excess capacity, notifying cargo owners of availability. Cargo owners, in turn, can post cargo they need shipped, and request confidential quotes from a list of prequalified suppliers, including shipping lines, stevedores and 3PLs.

Since the portal’s launch at the end of 2013, more than 60 shippers of bulk cargo and project cargo including heavy equipment have registered as portal users, along with shipping lines and marine service providers. As a new season kicks off, the port authority hopes to encourage more shippers to become users of the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Seaway system.

"We have a good thing going on the Seaway," said Ian Hamilton, the port authority’s vice president of business development and real estate. "Marine routings can bring some pretty significant cost savings. Marine Gateway takes the legwork out of choosing marine, making ‘shipping by ship’ a real option for more users."

Virginia Port Takes Steps to Improve Truck Operations Efficiency

In a focused and ongoing effort to address the concerns of motor carriers and to become more operationally efficient, the Virginia Port Authority (VPA) is taking a number of deliberate steps aimed at improving overall cargo velocity.

"An investment in technology and conveyance equipment, smarter allocation of manpower, reactivating mothballed equipment, extending hours at our gates and empty yards when and where needed, and setting up various express-type lanes for motor carriers are either in operation or on their way," said John. F. Reinhart, the VPA’s CEO and executive director.

The immediate effort is focused Norfolk International Terminals (NIT), a 693-acre facility with more than a mile of wharf space, two transfer zones and the port’s largest (on-dock) rail operation. Since the beginning of the year, the emphasis has been on improving the throughput of truck freight and the following steps have been taken, or a plan and accompanying deadline have been approved.

Improvements to gate and transfer zones (NIT North/South): Express or PNG (Pop-and-Go) lanes at the transfer zones have been implemented to improve the velocity of dual transactions. These lanes handle 10 percent to 15 percent of transfer zone volume; the average transaction time is 30 minutes. In addition, gate hours have been extended.

Creation of the Motor Carrier Task Force (MCTF): The overall goal of the MCTF is to improve the throughput of truck freight without compromising safety. The task force consists of a 10-member steering committee and five working groups that will focus on reducing turn times, cutting wait-time at the gates, chassis availability and regulating the daily flow of trucks to and from the terminals.

Testing optical character recognition (OCR) portals: A portion of all container traffic, bare chassis and bobtails is being routed through NIT’s inbound OCR portals as part of a test. The technology automatically identifies containers, chassis, and license plates associated with equipment and enables automatic gate processing functions. Processing should take about half the time it did prior to gate automation.

Implementation of an appointment system for motor carriers: The appointment system is focused on regulating the flow of trucks into NIT to reduce the "rush hour" effect and spread the gate moves more evenly throughout the day; operations will be able to set a number of available "reservations" per hour.

Introduction of "yard hustlers" into the rail operation: Thirty-two hustlers are being leased and delivered to NIT by May 26. The effort will be to integrate them into operations at the Central Rail Yard (CRY) as soon as practically possible to optimize rail operations.

Implementation of N4 terminal-wide operating system: The N4 terminal operating system is now being used at 89 terminals globally. It will replace a legacy system and allow for better operational visibility; equipment utilization in the yard; efficiency with gate processes; event monitoring; and inventory management.

NIT is one of four terminals owned and operated by the Virginia Port Authority. The others are Portsmouth Marine Terminal, and Newport News Marine Terminal in the Hampton Roads tidewater region and the Virginia Inland Port in Front Royal. In addition, the VPA leases and operates APM Terminals in Portsmouth and the Port of Richmond.