Maritime partners finalize plan to expand chassis pool, fight port congestion

In the industry’s latest maneuver to relieve container port congestion, a public/private partnership of five maritime logistics groups today said they had agreed to establish a new South Atlantic Chassis Pool set to begin operations in October 2023.

The deal finalizes a concept announced in July 2021 to add intermodal freight capacity at a time when supply chains continue to be pinched by severe port backups and container shortages.

The new pool—to be known as SACP 3.0—will include participation from The Ocean Carrier Equipment Management Association (OCEMA), Consolidated Chassis Management LLC (CCM), Georgia Ports Authority (GPA), Jacksonville Port Authority (JAXPORT), and North Carolina State Ports Authority (NC Ports).

The pool will offer 60,000 chassis to truckers, beneficial cargo owners, ocean carriers, and other port users, allowing them to better manage the tremendous import growth seen in recent years. “The SACP 3.0 will refurbish and replace chassis to improve fluidity and keep pace with the tremendous container trade growth across the South Atlantic,” Griff Lynch, executive director of the GPA, said in a release.

Compared to the existing pool, the new system will continue to be owned by a subsidiary of OCEMA and managed by CCM. But in a change, it will transition from the current multi-contributor chassis pool to a single-provider, utility type pool.

That change is significant because it will place the responsibility for procuring chassis assets with a single provider, CCM. The single provider model takes the best qualities of both the current gray pool and proprietary models and combines them to offer a safe, reliable, cost efficient, and scalable premium service, the partners said.

“The SACP 3.0 provides a single management entity that ensures a robust chassis availability in the South Atlantic region and the ability to respond nimbly to the exponential cargo volume growth our ports are experiencing,” Brian Clark, executive director of NC Ports, said in a release. 

Following the launch, the SACP will continue to be the largest fully interoperable chassis pool in the U.S., with over 75 locations in the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

“This joint effort by three major U.S. ports and ocean carrier partners is a great example of a public/private effort that will ensure port users, including U.S. exporters and importers, truckers, rail roads, and ocean carriers, as well as the ports themselves, will receive access to the most resilient, efficient, and environmentally sound regional chassis fleet in the U.S.,” Jeffrey Lawrence, OCEMA’s executive director, said in a release.

"SACP will continue to leverage its proven technology and management expertise to drive innovative chassis provisioning options that address changing customer and market needs as well as business demand," said CCM CEO.

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— CCM Pool (@CcmPool) February 28, 2022