In Chicago, trucking companies that transport sea containers have encountered chassis shortages as their chassis major suppliers DCLI and TRAC Intermodal are eager to repair and refurbish equipment that will be in high demand in 2021 and 2022.
TRAC Intermodal Chief Operating Officer Val Noel said that we don't want to over-repair and then let our chassis idle because we expect to receive a certain percentage of commercial transportation business, only to find that it is much less. "
Noel added that the situation should be resolved in the next week or two. All this is to have enough mechanical devices to restore these chassis to a usable state so that short barge suppliers can use them. Because not enough mechanics can be found to repair the chassis, the worst case is next week, the situation in Chicago will be resolved.
As of June this year, DCLI has repaired and restored 15,600 chassis in Chicago, and the speed of maintenance work is increasing every month. Since March, another 400 refurbished DCLI chassis have been in service in Chicago.
Both TRAC and DCLI said they had stopped more units because of the slowdown in port and intermodal traffic. Noel said many of TRAC's units are also receiving upgrades, including replacing old tires and switching from incandescent to LED lights.
These units need to be repaired, upgraded or refurbished. Because these tasks cannot be completed when the chassis demand is strong in 2021 and 2022, the repair work takes longer than expected, and it is difficult to find enough mechanics. This also led to Chicago's road-ready vehicle shortage.
Mike O'Malley, senior vice president for government and public relations at DCLI, said demand for the chassis was down this year through June. Demand for marine chassis fell 30% year-on-year, while demand for street vehicles fell 20% over the same period. As these chassis begin to come back to us after a lot of use, we believe that providing the necessary maintenance and refurbishment for these chassis will improve our service level.
TRAC utilizes a reservation system called EZBook in Chicago, which has often shown no available chassis in recent weeks. DCLI does not require reservations, but sends daily notifications about the availability of units in Chicago-area warehouses, often indicating that few or no chassis are available.
The chassis shortage had the greatest impact on cargo handled by the Canadian National Railway, Canadian Pacific Kansas City, CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway. These North American Class I railroads operate grounded terminals, similar to maritime ports. However, unlike the port, most of the chassis of these four railways are placed in off-site warehouses, not on the docks.
TRAC's Noel said that because privately owned wheels have increased in the past two years, especially in cities such as Chicago, it has become more difficult to find the right balance in how many chassis to disable.
The complexity and uncertainty of this truck driver's chassis makes it challenging to determine how many chassis can be safely withdrawn from service for upgrades or refurbishment, which increases the risk of chassis suppliers withdrawing from service too quickly, resulting in shortages.
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