November 2, 2021
Greetings!
The Georgia Ports Authority and our import customers have made significant strides in reducing the number of long-dwell containers at Garden City Terminal.
Presently, just over 1,300 containers have been at Garden City for more than four weeks, a 57 percent reduction compared to the 3,000 long-dwell containers on Sept. 1.
At Garden City Terminal alone, truck moves totaled nearly 72,000 last week. Counting Savannah’s Ocean Terminal, that number reached a weekly record of 74,179. As part of that success, we saw record use of our 7-11 p.m. night gates, at nearly 1,300 moves for the week.
Last week’s performance helped make October the Port of Savannah’s busiest month ever for truck moves. Between Garden City and Ocean Terminal, GPA and our partners completed an amazing 308,000 gate transactions. Despite handling a growing number of truck moves, turn times at Garden City edged downward last week.
For the month of October, the Port of Savannah also achieved a record 278,000 vessel lifts.
I would like to commend our entire logistics community, from shipping lines and stevedores, to the ILA, GPA employees and our partners in trucking and rail. We have been able to handle such volume because all facets of our community are working in unison.
In order to further expedite operations, GPA is making additional efforts to reduce the number of boxes on terminal. We will soon announce new inland sites that will serve as temporary pop-up storage for import containers. Use of these sites, located near major population centers, will not only ease movement of cargo across terminal, but also speed vessel service.
Finally, I would like to thank our customers for their continued trust as GPA and our partners work diligently to ensure the world-class service customers have come to expect at the Port of Savannah.
Sincerely,
