APM Terminals at the Port of Los Angeles is electrifying terminal operations. The result has not only helped reduce emissions but also improved efficiencies so that truck dwell times have declined from 90 minutes to 35 minutes, according to Jon Poelma, Managing Director, APM Terminals, Los Angeles.

During a media tour of the APM Terminal at the Port of Los Angeles on March 4th, Poelma said new investments include hybrid straddle carriers and electric vehicles, and increased battery charging.

Reducing Emissions

They have resulted in major declines in diesel particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur oxides, as well as a reduction of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

At the same time, truck vehicle miles travelled (VMT) in the terminal have been reduced by 36%, and truck idle time has been reduced by 85%, contributing to the reduction of truck waiting or dwell time at the terminal to 35 minutes.

Sustainability Tools

Under AMPT’s Sustainability and Environment Program to “Reduce, Replace and Decarbonize,” the terminal has acquired:

  • 3 clean truck express lanes
  • 12% zero emission truck moves
  • 36 electric vehicles
  • 51 charging stations
  • 3 electric straddle carriers
  • 800 Mw per hour of annual electricity savings from low-emission LED lights
  • 9 electric forklifts
  • 22 electric utility tractors

Supporting The Gemini Alliance

On January 17, 2024, container vessel carriers Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk announced they would enter into a vessel sharing arrangement called the Gemini Cooperation beginning in February 2025. Poelma says the improvements in terminal operations come at a time when APMT’s sister company, Maersk, is in the Gemini alliance with Hapag-Lloyd.

The Gemini partners have been able to increase schedule reliability to 90% of sailings, in part due to efficient terminal operations, including at APMT at Pier 400. Poelma told reporters: “I'd have to say I was a little skeptical at the start, how one could move from low sixties percentage reliability to 90 and do it consistently. But I think we can all see from the data that it is happening.”

He added: “We're proud to play a role in, in keeping them reliable because LA is such a big, big port for their services. But in addition to the reliability on the ocean side, we need to ensure that the land side matches that reliability. And so, we put a lot of effort into the trucking side of the business. And the rail service is working very, very well right now. About 30% of our business is rail. And in addition to that, we have the trucks. And so much has been spent on the trucking community in terms of their journey towards electrification. But we are speeding those trucks in and out of here at low turn times.”

Reducing Truck Wait Times

The success of reducing truck turn times has been critical to APMT’s success at Los Angeles: “We're looking at 35 minutes from in the gate to out of the gate. That is one of the best in the country. And, we work really hard to achieve that. It doesn't matter what day it is, Monday or Sunday, you know, we try to make sure that those truckers are serviced. That is really important to me. It's always been important to me. A truck driver's job is a very thankless job. And we've got to do our part to remove friction in that side of the supply chain.”

Truck Charging

APMT is also partnering with companies such as Forum Mobility that has just opened a truck charging station nearby: “This morning I had the opportunity to speak over at Forum Mobility, which is a charging station about two miles away in the Port of Long Beach where they have nine megawatts of power and one, I think it's one-and-a-half-acre footprint, which is really impressive.”

Plugged In Terminal

Poelma pointed out that all the ship-to-shore cranes APMT runs on electricity, and most ships, when they arrive at the terminal, turn off their bunker-fueled engines and plug into electric power shore side: “The cranes are all plugged in; not every terminal in the world has cranes that are plugged in. Some still run on an alternative fuel. Also, every ship that comes here, I would say 97% of the ships that came into Pier 400 last year got plugged in, and they go to shore power. So, you don't see smoke coming out of those ships. So, once they are alongside, they are not burning fuel. And that's pretty unique to Los Angeles and Long Beach. Even some of our cleanest ports out there in Europe are looking at it, (but) haven't even implemented it yet.”

Trained Workers

A big part of the APMT success is its workers and the upgraded training that dock workers have gotten operating electrical equipment.

Poelma recognized the training provided by the Pacific Crane Maintenance Company (PCMC):” We've also spent hundreds of hours, dollars of our own money training the mechanics on the terminal as well as with our partner, PCMC. They hire the mechanics directly. And so, they manage the mechanics on the terminal, but they have also put in hundreds of hours training them on how to work with electric equipment. So, that is really the future of the business out here. It is working on electric equipment jobs of the future.”

Power Delivery Issues

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), a Los Angeles city agency, has had problems delivering power to container terminals at the Port of Los Angeles.

It is in the process of upgrading its infrastructure at the Port of Los Angeles. “We have brownouts. Yeah. We have had quite a few brownouts this year, and we do meet periodically with LADWP all the way up to the CEO, and they have committed that by 2030, we will have the necessary electricity. So, we have done a number of studies to quantify how much electricity the terminal needs. So, I think we feel pretty confident about how much is needed. We just got to continue to get confidence through seeing detailed project plans that they can produce a consistent, reliable supply of power to the terminal.”

Poelma said APMT is now consuming about 7 megawatts of electricity and plans to increase its consumption to about 18 megawatts of power generation for zero emissions.

As a result, the investment by LADWP in new power delivery is critical: “And so that is something we've got to work very closely with the utility to pipe that electricity into the facility. In addition to that, it is not just the supply, it is the, the reliability and continuity. You may remember a Wall Street Journal article last year where we were having some, we call them brownouts, they are disturbances. And even for a brief second, if there is a disturbance … some of the equipment will need to be restarted. And that's a challenge for us because that causes us to be inefficient, which we cannot be. We are trying to move an assembly line. We don't want to stop the assembly line. Something actually different about this terminal is that we are open 24/7.”