TRAC Intermodal Continues its Efforts to Keep Cargo Flowing Amid Record Volume at the Port of NY-NJ

TRAC Intermodal
Image Source: Breaking Waves

This week, the Port of New York and New Jersey in its Breaking Waves newsletter reported on some of the key efforts the Port is taking to handle record-breaking container volume.

The Port set a monthly container record in August with 688,365 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). It then broke that record in September by handling 720,969 TEUs, a 15.4% year-over-year increase. The Port’s surging freight volumes are driven by effects of the COVID-19 pandemic such as retailers replenishing depleted stocks, the “stay at home” economy, and inventory management strategies for “just-in-case” stock levels.

Port partners and stakeholders are working hard to manage high cargo volumes and keep the supply chain fluid. TRAC is helping to ensure chassis fluidity to meet unprecedented cargo volume by:

  • Infusing over 1,200 chassis to the TRAC Metro Pool in the NY-NJ market.
    As the economy and import volume has rebounded, TRAC Intermodal has been extremely responsive, adding incremental fleet to critical pinch points to meet surging volume.
  • Maximizing fleet availability.
    TRAC Intermodal has also honed its focus on decreasing out-of-service units as quickly as possible through collaboration with maintenance and repair vendors along with ILA support. Currently, total fleet OOS is 5% with the 40ft fleet at just 1%.
  • In addition to TRAC’s efforts, The Port of NY-NJ will make a special effort to ground containers to free up the chassis to support the inbound flow.

For more details on TRAC’s chassis operations, please visit our weekly operations updates.