Consolidated Chassis Management (CCM), a leading cooperative chassis pool manager, announced it has opened a new, expanded office in Savannah, GA, to accommodate the growing South Atlantic Chassis Pool (SACP) 3.0 team. Launching in October 2023, SACP 3.0 will offer a new chassis provisioning solution that utilizes a single provider pool model.
Chassis pools have made a big difference in the availability of chassis for containers. Pooling chassis is a standard way of covering a varying demand with a lower investment in inventory. If the maintenance is performed to a good standard, the pools will be popular with drivers, because of the standardized agreements for pickup and dropoff.
According to CCM’s CEO Mike Wilson, “SACP 3.0 will revolutionize chassis provisioning in the United States.As we get closer to launch, we are building our teams, expanding our office space and enhancing CIT, our fleet management platform — all to provide the support necessary to ensure SACP 3.0 reaches its full potential.”
With more than 75 sites across Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, SACP 3.0 will continue to be the nation’s largest fully interoperable chassis pool. It will increase and upgrade the existing South Atlantic Chassis Pool with new and refurbished intermodal chassis from major regional port and key intermodal inland hubs.
The South Atlantic region has been a productive location for a chassis pool, with the serious expansion of service to these areas by major container shipping lines. Pools have also played a role on the West Coast at Los Angeles/Long Beach.
SACP 3.0 will transition from the current multi-contributor chassis pool to a single provider utility
type pool, and it will offer over 50,000 chassis to truckers, beneficial cargo owners, ocean
carriers and other port users. The pool is being established cooperatively by The Ocean Carrier
Equipment Management Association (OCEMA), Georgia Ports Authority (GPA), Jacksonville
Port Authority (JaxPort), North Carolina State Ports Authority (NC Ports) and Consolidated
Chassis Management LLC (CCM).
“We are committed to ensuring SACP delivers on its promise, so we will continue to build in our
team and make investments that deepen our presence in the Southeast. The new office is not
only larger, but it is also more conveniently located, bringing us closer to GPA as well as other
members of the supply chain community, including steamship lines and BCO’s,” said Mr.
Wilson.
Some years ago the ocean carriers decided to divest themselves of chassis in the US. They claimed to do this because of American laws that made chassis owners responsible for damage from accidents where they were found to participate in the fault. These liability laws were seen as threats to the liner firms. So CCM was created. As you can see, while independent, it’s related to the Ocean Carrier Equipment Management Association, which is closely allied to the ocean carriers. It’s a liability shifting scheme.
The fact is, ocean carriers must be able to provide chassis for their customers. In the US, it’s not a good business decision for truckers and trucking firms to own their chassis. Customers have different needs, and the chassis has to be chosen for the specific load. A study showed that with economic conditions in the US, a trucker would need to have 90% confidence that customers would want a chassis, to afford owning it. The fraction is nowhere near that.
So the pools and CCA help fulfill that function. It’s a good strategy, and results in considerable savings. I’m glad to see that it is taking off in the Southland of the US.
Liability is also related to maintenance. If maintenance is high quality, a trucker will pick up a good chassis that is not likely to fail on her route. The trucker must bear the immediate expense of a repair on the route, which delays her cash flow. The pool offers a chance for high-quality maintenance. In California, the pools established near LA/Long Beach were required to hire union mechanics, which may have improved the quality of the maintenance. With the CCA pools there is a specific firm to hold responsible for maintaining the chassis.
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