Intermodal operations at the Global Gateway South Terminal. Image courtesy of APL
APL, a leading ocean carrier part of the CMA CGM group, has announced upgrades to its ‘Eagle Express X’ (EXX) service — promising same-day cargo availability at the Global Gateway South (GGS) terminal at Los Angeles.
In the latest development of the service, APL has deployed an operation supported by a new fleet of trucks, a dedicated container yard and truck in-gate lanes reserved solely for the EXX service — significantly optimizing the pick-up and transportation of EXX shipments.
EXX shipments will now be discharged from the ship directly to a dedicated fleet of new GPS-enabled trucks, which will have separate terminal in-gates reserved to allow for faster and more efficient movement of the cargo.
Senior Vice President of APL’s Trans-Pacific Trade, Jesper Stenbak, commented: “APL’s enhanced EXX service reflects our desire to further accelerate our customers’ speed to market and take last mile delivery of their U.S. West Coast-bound cargoes to the next level.
“In securing resources at GGS for the sole benefit of EXX shipments, we reduce the complexity and additional transit time incurred when transferring these cargoes to an off-dock facility.
“The refined EXX service will, thus, enable shippers to achieve a greater ease of collection and swifter delivery of cargoes to the local California market.”
Read port of Long Beach's technical paper on optimizing road based intermodal shipping from terminals — Terminal Technology: Trimming Truck Turn Times
Launched in February, 2018 EXX is a weekly China-US West Coast ocean freight service offering n 11-day transit from Shanghai to Los Angeles.
Offering end mile delivery has recently become an important focus for many of the ocean carriers, with Maersk’s CEO Søren Skou setting out a vision for Maersk to expand with a FedEx or UPS-style service during a presentation in February.
Skou said: “We want our customers, the people who ship stuff from one end of the world to the other, to be able to do that by just dealing with Maersk.
“We’re building this company that is a global integrated container business, a company very similar to UPS and FedEx.
“I hope they will be considered peers of ours when we are done with this journey in three to five years.”
CMA CGM have also stated they are looking to launch new logistics offerings and inland services, including setting up a new multi-temperature logistics facility at DP World London Gateway.
The new cold storage facility has a planned area of 107,155 square foot and is set to become operational in 2019.
