Page 45: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (October 2020)

“Our Port Master Plan takes a 30-year view and tells us that we need to be planning for our next- generation waterway infrastructure and facility infrastructure now. You don’t wait 10 years, you have to start now.” – Sam Ruda, Director,

Port of NY/NJ

Port New York/New Jersey structure and facility infrastructure now. This includes: and we’re hearing a lot about it from the trucking community • Deepening the channel: With the U.S. Army Corps of En- as to what needs to be improved in the ports sector.” gineers the port is evaluating channel depth to accommo-

COVID-19 date 18,000 TEU container ships. • Rail: Completion of the last major express rail facility in The COVID-19 pandemic is the business story of 2020, and

Port Jersey/Jersey City/Bayonne, a public private partner- when talk turns to its impact, Ruda said there are multiple ship with GCT, with the port putting in $56 million. layers. First, there’s the people, and Ruda said port of? ce em- • Heavy Lift: Terminal operators have been buying bigger ployees have rapidly moved into the digital workspace. “We cranes: higher and wider to facilitate more ef? cient cargo no longer pass around hard documents, it’s all e-signatures handling operations. now,” said Ruda. “e-signatures have been around forever, but • Berth and Wharf renewal: “(Some of) these are facili- we really weren’t using it. Today, we are processing leases, ties that came into being in the 1950s and 1960s with the port of entry … everything much faster and more ef? ciently, advent of containerization” and this is a positive that has emerged from the COVID-19 negative. Ultimately though, it are the waterfront workers that have been on the front lines to ensure that commerce ? ows,

Technology Drivers

While it is not a port-speci? c technology, Ruda counts e- and Ruda credits all stakeholders, including labor, the port commerce as a primary driver in the ports planning for the authority and the employers to keep things moving. “We all coming generation. “It’s not only changing where we buy, decided early on that we would not rely on others for PPE but also how people buy,” said Ruda. “That doesn’t change equipment for waterfront labor,” said Ruda. “We brought it all that there is a container connected to the purchase; but it does in ourselves. Labor started early with temperature checks.” To drive where distribution and ful? llment centers are located. that end, the port has been open as close as possible to usual,

Fifteen years ago the chase was on for the cheapest land fur- and in fact, year to date, volume is only down 8%.

thest from the port; we’re seeing the opposite today, and the “It’s amazing how resilient the maritime, waterfront, and industrial real estate market is on ? re.” He said Port NY/NJ supply chain have been,” said Ruda. “This started in late Janu- has more than one billion square feet of warehouse and distri- ary as a supply shock when China was starting to shut down. bution space within 50 miles of the port. Internally at the port, When it was happening, it looked like it was just a China issue,

Ruda looks at the intermodal chain holistically, as the tech- but then it evolved from a supply shock to a demand shock. nology swing “really is about the technology that support the The stay at home economy has really played to the container activities in the port system. It’s the interface that the truckers trade in many respects. There have been strong volumes in have with the terminals. As we dive deeper into it, we talk furniture, food, home goods, beer wines and spirits … I don’t about the truck and the containers, but we really have to start want to give the impression that COVID has not impacted us, talking about the truck chasis, and about returning empty con- but the number of blank sailings has fallen sharply; and we’re tainers. This is a big opportunity for ef? ciency improvements, starting to see a strong recovery.” www.marinelink.com 45

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