Wal-Mart's off-peak trucking plan scores points at port.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. may have opponents among the unions and local politicians, but it's making friends down at the docks with a plan to more a large portion of its containers through the L.A. and Long Beach facilities at night.

Late last month, an official of the Bentonville, Ark. said the retail giant had committed to moving 25,000 containers (each carrying two 20-foot equivalent units, or TEUs) through the ports during non-peak hours each year to help alleviate daytime gridlock on the ports' access freeways.

Since then, however, the company has since backed down on specifics. Spokeswoman Mona Williams said Stefan Hargrove, Wal-Mart's general manager of direct imports, had gotten "ahead of himself" in making the announcement during a meeting attended by 60 maritime officials at the Port of L.A. But she confirmed that the company is planning for a large amount.

"We cannot yet commit to how much freight we can move to off-peak," Williams said.

With its plan, Wal-Mart would become the first importer to make a large-scale commitment--up to a quarter of its annual container flow--moving through the two ports during off-peak hours.

To move a container from the ports to a regional distribution center, it takes two truck trips--one to and one from the ports--so Wal-Mart's move could eliminate up to 50,000 truck trips per year.

"This is an important development," said Rose Casey, deputy director for Caltrans District 7, which includes L.A. County. "The capacity of the 710 is stretched. I hope that other large companies follow suit."

Getting importers to move their goods through the ports outside of the 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daytime shift long has been a goal of local community activists and politicians, port officials and transportation officials. But the shifting has been minimal thus far because importers don't want to pay the higher labor costs charged for off-peak hours.

The math gets easier for big box retailers like Wal-Mart, Target Corp. and Home Depot Inc., which operate just-in-time delivery systems and move large amounts of goods through the ports. Because their distribution facilities are already open 24 hours, they can realize savings that offset some of the costs.

To date, though, retailers have only sporadically moved cargo through the ports during off-peak hours--generally during the busiest retail seasons or when they needed an emergency shipment to restock empty shelves.

That's not been enough to placate South Bay commuters who have to share the Long Beach (710) and Harbor (110) freeways with an estimated 13,000 trucks serving the ports.

State Assembly Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, has threatened to push legislation mandating extended gate hours at the ports if the industry does not devise a traffic reduction plan by Feb. 20, 2004.

"The more opportunities there are for companies such as Wal-Mart to use the freeway system during the off-peak hours, that will help us address the congestion we see everyday," said Casey.

Jerry Shields, a spokesman for Home Depot, said he did not know if his company would increase its off-peak throughput. Target officials did not return phone calls.

Last year, the Waterfront Coalition, a retailers' trade group, attempted to implement a pilot program to show that it was in importers' best interest to move their cargo at night.

But a survey by the group of more than 1,000 shippers showed that the ports' 13 terminals could only be assured 200 gate moves per night, about 300 less than terminal operators said they needed to make the program financially feasible for them.

"When you're the first, you're the trend setter," said Al Fierstine, business development director for the L.A. port. "It tells people (considering) off-peak hours that it can truly be done with commitments."

Expansion plans

Wal-Mart's commitment comes as the company plans to open 40 supercenters in California within four years. Supercenters are 200,000-square-foot stores with a third of the space dedicated to grocery sales operations--and that has the major supermarket chains concerned that Wal-Mart's lower labor costs undercut prices in their stores.

Both sides in the grocery store work stoppage, underway since Oct. 10, have cited pressure from Wal-Mart's non-union, low-pay jobs. (As of late last week, there were no plans to resume negotiations between the union and representatives of Safeway Inc., Albertsons Inc. and Kroger Co., which broke off earlier in the month.)

"There's been a lot of adverse publicity for Wal-Mart," said Fierstine. "This (commitment) is to show the communities that they want to be a good corporate citizen. This makes for good press."

He said he expects the program to get underway next month, as soon as each terminal agrees which night it will be open late to handle the cargo. He said he wasn't concerned about Wal-Mart's backtracking on the numbers.

"They have sufficient volumes that they will probably work out to 25,000 containers anyway," he said. "Their volumes are enormous."