From an environmental perspective, the berth reservation system enacted by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in 2021 has been a major success.
That according to Rachel Rhodes, lead author of a new study on the matter published
last week in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin. Rhodes is a project scientist at the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
The study by Rhodes and her colleagues found that the system has resulted in the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 24% per voyage between East Asia and Southern California.
According to Transport Topics magazine, prior to the launch of the queuing program, the twin ports, as with most other ports around the globe, used a first-come, first-served approach to assigning dock space that has been around for about 100 years.
“That encouraged ships to “sail fast, then wait,” according to the researchers. “But since the queuing system tracks a vessel’s journey as it departs its last port of call, captains can slow down without fear of losing their spot in line. That reduces fuel consumption and emissions.”
However, with the scheduling system, a vessel’s journey is tracked as it departs its last port of call. It also allows ships to reduce their speed coming to the port without risk of losing their spot in line. That reduces fuel consumption and emissions.
“One of the big wins of this is that it’s really sort of a low-tech, low-hanging-fruit way to cut emissions for the shipping industry,” the researchers say.
In total, ocean shipping produces about 3% of global CO2 emissions, according to estimates.
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 In total, ocean shipping produces about 3% of global CO2 emissions, according to estimates.
As part of the effort, the researchers analyzed 125 million location records generated by 1,157 containerships on routes from East Asia to Los Angeles between 2017 and 2023. By also bringing in data on vessel size, cargo capacity and engine type, the scientists were able to estimate CO2 emissions for each of 10,000 journeys taken before and after the queuing system was launched.
The analysis found that CO2 emissions from the ships fell 24% in 2022 and nearly 16% in 2023.
According to Transport Topics, the queuing program is voluntary, but more than 95% of shipping companies docking at the two ports participated.
However, the researchers acknowledged that other factors, including companies’ climate and business priorities and the type of vessels they operate, can affect ship speed and emissions. They also found that four smaller West Coast ports that don’t deploy a queuing system also experienced overall drops in emissions, so the reductions for the ports of LA and Long Beach may also have been impacted by other factors.
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