Port authority, operator strike deal with railway to boost competitiveness
(The following story by Scott Simpson appeared on the Vancouver Sun website on June 15, 2010.)
Canadian National Railway is earning kudos from Port Metro Vancouver for aggressive new efforts to hasten the flow of goods through Canada’s largest port.
CNhas recently struck agreements with the port authority and with port tenant TSI Terminal Systems Inc. to “drive further efficiencies” at the port in order to boost its competitiveness with other West Coast gateways.
In early May, the port authority called on Transport Canada to consider new national regulations that would establish minimum service levels for railways hauling cargo into and out of Canadian ports — saying that 84 per cent of port rail customers were unhappy with the existing system of commercially based agreements.
Port Metro Vancouver annually trades about $75 billion worth of goods with more than 160 trading economies worldwide, and the port’s customers were particularly concerned about instances in which containers would be idled in the port for several days rather than expeditiously moved along the supply chain. CN responded with a contention that commercial agreements would achieve the same objectives — a more efficient system of moving goods, improved communication among port participants, and performance monitoring — without regulatory constraints.
The railway, the port and the terminal operator are all optimistic.
“Our view is that we’ve got to get everybody aligned here,” CN communications director Mark Hallman said in a phone interview. “The supply chain is not just simply the railway. It’s everybody else. It’s got shippers, it’s got receivers, it’s got terminal operators, it’s got port authorities, truckers, steamship lines.
“We hope to be able to achieve definitive agreements within the near term.”
Lori Janson, corporate communications director for TSI, said the goal is to attract more business to the port of Vancouver.
“There will probably be greater and more improved communication -looking at dwell time, how can we get the containers off the dock faster, how can we improve our transit time across the country into Chicago, that sort of thing.”
Port chief operating officer Chris Badger noted that the submission to Transport Canada, which is undertaking a federal rail transport review, did not single out a particular railway for criticism. “What we are really pleased with is the leadership role that CN as one of the class one railways has taken,” Badger said. “The collaboration agreement we have with them in many ways answers many of the recommendations we put forward for the rail system in the rail review.
“We have hit the ground running since the signing of agreement [two weeks ago].
“After the few decades I’ve been in this business I can’t think of a stage when our gateway has been in a more competitive market than it is today, and it’s liable to get more so in the future. We recognize that there are other ports in North America that are looking to compete in markets that we have enjoyed in the past. It’s about taking what we’ve got — and we are a successful gateway and have been for many years — and making it more successful.”