5 November 2004

Vancouver tweaks trucker appointments

The following article is extracted from the 4 November 2004 edition of “The Journal of Commerce”.

The Vancouver Port Authority has modified its trucker appointment system to account for the high rate of "no shows" and cancellations that make it too late for other trucks to use the appointment for pick-ups and deliveries at container terminals ….

Now, companies requiring appointments are automatically assigned a "standby" designation and notified by e-mail when an appointment has been secured.

For example, the port estimates that only about 60 percent of the 660 appointments available at the Centerm Container Port each day were actually used prior to the change. Companies historically have had to call the port repeatedly to find out if a slot has opened up. Now, when a reservation is not available, a company's name is placed into a queuing system and the company is notified immediately when a slot has opened up. ….