PORT FEES
PierPASS
A traffic mitigation program at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach that charges a fee (OffPeak Fee) for daytime weekday container pickups to shift volume to nights and weekends.
PierPASS is a traffic mitigation program operated at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. It was created in 2005 to reduce truck congestion on local streets and freeways by incentivizing drayage carriers to move containers during nights and weekends rather than peak daytime hours. The program charges an "OffPeak Fee" (now called the Traffic Mitigation Fee or TMF) for containers picked up or dropped off during the standard weekday daytime window (Monday–Friday, approximately 8 AM to 6 PM).
The current Traffic Mitigation Fee is assessed per TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit) on loaded container movements during peak hours. For a standard 40' container (counted as 2 TEUs), the fee amounts to several hundred dollars per move. Containers moved during off-peak hours (nights and weekends) are exempt. The program has been effective at shifting a significant portion of cargo movement to off-peak hours, reducing daytime truck traffic at LA/LB.
From a drayage cost standpoint, shippers and freight forwarders at LA/LB must account for PierPASS fees in their drayage rate calculations. Carriers typically pass the TMF through to the shipper as a line item. Consignees with warehouses that have evening/weekend receiving hours can save significantly by instructing their drayage carrier to schedule off-peak moves.