Truck Delays at Seaports: Assessment Using Terminal Webcams

Truck queuing at marine terminal gates has long been recognized as a source of emissions problems because of the many trucks that are idling. For this reason, stakeholders have a great interest in lessening the severity of the problem. Most past studies that gathered truck-related data at marine terminal gates were done with field-based observations. With an increasing number of terminals offering live views of their gates with webcams as a means of managing demand for the terminals, these webcams can be used to gather much needed truck queuing information and other truck-related data. Webcams were used to observe truck queuing patterns and to analyze truck processing time, truck interarrival time, and truck queuing time at the entry gate of marine terminal to understand better the underlying reasons behind truck queuing. The data obtained from webcams were comparable to those collected during field observations: the identified best-fit distributions corresponded to the best-fit distributions reported in previous studies. From the gathered data, the reasons for truck queuing at marine terminal gates, aside from the gate capacity issue, included the drayage drivers' desire to make their first move at the beginning of the day to allow more time for subsequent moves later in the day, terminals' policy to close for lunch, trouble transactions, variability in truck arrivals at the terminal throughout the day and week, and inclement weather.