What is Pier Pass?
Pier Pass, or PierPass, is a not-for-profit organization founded by marine terminal operators at the Los Angeles pier and the Long Beach pier. The main mission of Pier Pass is to mitigate port congestion at these ports.
More about Pier Pass and Pier Pass Fee
To fulfill its mission, the organization started the OffPeak program in 2005, imposing Pier Pass Fee or Traffic Mitigation Fee on cargo that were moved out of the ports during weekday daytime. This discouraged truckers to move out their cargos in peak weekday time, which could contribute to port congestion and result in severe air pollution and other problems in the neighborhood.
Despite its accomplishments, the initial shift-based program was not able to evolve with the industry’s growth and technological advancement. As a result, Pier Pass decided to launch OffPeak 2.0 in late 2018.
Contrary to the previous version, OffPeak 2.0 imposes a single flat fee, $31.52 per TEU (twenty-foot equivalent feet) and $63.04 for all other sizes, on containers that are moved out of the ports in both daytime and nighttime. Truckers will be able to book appointments to move out their cargo using the appointment system portals of individual terminals. Pier Pass claimed that
a single or several common portals might be possible in the future and the pier pass 2.0 system will be able to evolve with the industry.