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the 12-acre facility. Yakomin said a three-mile-long line of roughly 500 trucks was turned away from returning empties on April 10 because PND was full by late afternoon.

“ APM chronically runs out of appointments for returning empties, so PND is taking the overflow,” Yakomin said.“ But if the marine terminal can’ t handle it, how can a single depot? Expecting one depot to absorb the empties is unrealistic.”

To address the overflow, APM said in a notice to truckers that an additional PND lot will be open for receiving Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd empties. The additional four-acre site can handle between 1,600 and 2,000 empty containers. Port truckers have also been directed to a recently opened 35-acre site, World Wide Depot, for returning empty containers belonging to Zim Integrated Shipping Services. That site is on the same plot of land as PND.

“ If the marine terminal can’ t handle it, how can a single depot?”

But Yakomin said more off-dock space for empties will just mean more off-dock congestion. The issue is being exacerbated by instances of truckers receiving conflicting empty return information from an ocean carrier and a marine terminal, she said, adding to motor carrier costs by sending truckers on dry runs.

“ The more room you give the ocean carriers to dump their empties and let them languish, they will use it,” Yakomin said.

Regulatory recourse?

PANYNJ said in its statement that“ while [ the current imbalance fee ] has been largely effective, some congestion has taken place if and when ocean carriers allow containers to accumulate to a critical point.” To avoid that, PANYNJ said the new tariff shortens the evaluation period for determining excess empties from one year to six months.

However, Yakomin said it is not clear if that represents any improvement, given the previous tariff referenced a quarterly period for assessing excess empties. Despite the previous tariff being in effect since 2023, the port still has bouts of empty congestion, Yakomin said.

“ The ocean carriers need to be held accountable for not removing their empties in a timely manner,” she said. As for updating the imbalance fee program,“ that’ s a little too late.”

Yakomin said the next recourse is through the US Federal Maritime Commission, which might have leverage into the issue due to the billing questions raised by empty returns. She said it is not clear whether ocean carriers are charging shippers detention on an empty container that had a return location but was full.

Inconsistent empty return instructions would also appear to violate FMC rules on providing accurate billing information. Moreover, motor carriers still face being shut out of marine terminals for unpaid detention bills, Yakomin added, a further violation of FMC billing rules.

“ We would like the FMC to take a look at incorrect billing, but also more clearly define accessibility for an empty return location,” she said.

email: michael. angell @ spglobal. com.

Demise of‘ Pool of Pools’ marks equipment transition in Southern California

By Bill Mongelluzzo

TRAC Intermodal has announced that it will leave the Southern California-based“ Pool of Pools” on June 1, effectively ending the massive chassis cooperative that has served truckers and their customers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach since 2015.

However, executives at the region’ s three intermodal equipment providers( IEPs)— TRAC, DCLI and Flexi- Van— are assuring users they will continue to have access to a sufficient number of chassis for the 2026 peak season and beyond.

“ An emphatic‘ yes,’” said Than Seeds, president of Flexi- Van, which exited the Pool of Pools( PoP) in May 2025.“ I am confident that right now there is so much surplus chassis capacity in the market that we can handle a couple of peak seasons right on top of each other.”

“ There is so much surplus chassis capacity that we can handle a couple of peak seasons right on top of each other.”

The PoP began operations in 2015 with about 80,000 chassis; it is now down to about 25,000, according to the Pool of Pools website. With Flexi-Van’ s departure from the pool a year ago and TRAC’ s announcement, it leaves only DCLI as a member of the Pool of Pools, effectively bringing an end to the cooperative that began business just over 11 years ago.

Jake Gilene, TRAC’ s executive vice president and chief commercial officer, said the decision to leave PoP reflects

34 Journal of Commerce | June 1, 2026 www. joc. com