Port Metro Vancouver (PMV) has launched a new container-handling capacity program so it can meet a projected tripling of the port’s container traffic by 2030.
“We think that by possibly as early as 2017, the current [port] capacity, with all of the foreseeable improvements in efficiency, will still be less than the demand,” PMV president and CEO Robin Silvester said.
Port container traffic is expected to double over the next 10 to 15 years, and PMV calculates that, even with potential new operating efficiencies, it will need to more than double its annual capacity of 3.7 million 20-foot-equivalent unit containers (TEUs) by 2030.
To address the pressing capacity needs, the port’s new program, which involves six years and seven rounds of consultation with the general public and First Nations, is aimed at freeing up capacity by identifying new operating efficiencies and planning for a Roberts Bank port expansion.
“It’s about maximizing what we can achieve with what we currently have,” Silvester said, “and then when we’re projecting reaching the limit of that, bringing new capacity on line.”
Steps in the new program include:
- gathering stakeholder and public input in April on how best to design the consultation process;
- project definition consultation this fall;
- pre-design consultation in the fall of 2012;
- public comment on the scope and nature of assessment studies in the winter of 2013;
- preliminary design consultation in 2014;
- a public hearing process tied to the environmental assessment in winter of 2015; and
- a detailed design consultation in the fall of 2015.
Silvester said the port is also initiating preliminary environmental and engineering studies for a proposed Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project.
He added that “de-bottlenecking” the rail causeway at Roberts Bank is key to improving port operating efficiency.
Gordon Payne is the board chairman of the Metro Vancouver Container Drayage Association (MVCDA), which represents 30% of the local trucking sector that serves the port. He said his organization wants changes to ensure that truckers have full loads coming and going from the port.
He said the current reservation system for the port’s various terminals allows truckers to book times for their port business, but it often can’t be matched with delivery and pickup times. That results in truckers’ trips being doubled.
“We want to be able to take a load in and take a load out, or take an empty [container] in and take a load out, whatever it is,” he said. “ But at the moment that’s a challenge.”
He added that the MVCDA also wants the container industry to expand its Monday to Friday daylight operating hours.
“As port’s volumes grow, the container industry has to recognize that you can’t do everything on the day shift – that the industry has to set itself up to be able to receive and deliver containers during the nighttime.”
While he didn’t identify any areas his organization wants addressed, Andy Smith, the BC Marine Employers’ Association (BCMEA) president and CEO, said the association “is gratified that PMV’s commitment to future growth is unequivocal.”
Silvester pointed out that the main overall gain from improving port container capacity will be increased local employment.