ContainerPort Group launches division to rescue “distressed” import containers

The intermodal drayage and logistics provider ContainerPort Group (CPG) has launched a new division to provide expedited transportation services for companies whose loaded import containers are sitting idle at port and rail terminals due to shortages of capacity or equipment, known as “distressed” loads.

Cleveland, Ohio-based CPG said its Expedited Services team will focus on finding solutions to move customer-critical containers that are not easily accessible or otherwise detained at rail yards and container yards across the country.

“Customers continue to have difficulty getting their freight delivered on-time due to a number of factors,” CPG Executive VP Mike Williams, head of CPG Logistics and Commercial, said in a release. “It could be tied up with detention and demurrage charges, overweight for a certain carrier, or perhaps a lack of available chassis. Expedited Services is all about getting creative to free those containers and finding a solution to get it where it needs to go.”

The range of problems that have frozen those import containers in place also includes a lack of equipment needed to get containers moved from storage areas, a lack of available space at the destination facility, excessive demurrage, and transloading holdups, the company said. In response, the newly formed Expedited Services team is equipped to handle many types of freight, including containers that are overweight, out-of-gauge, reefers, and hazmat.

While the new division is intended for imported goods, CPG can also deploy its domestic team as needed for a direct delivery or a transload situation, Eddie Fuchs, CPG’s Director for Drayage Solutions, said in an email.

“With issues facing the market such as capacity constraints and lack of equipment, record numbers in demurrage/storage have been paid out in 2022. With our vast network of partner carriers, we are able to limit these issues and provide solutions to real-time problems,” Fuchs said.