Last week, we reached an important milestone in the CA Port Data Interoperability Grant Program. The California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) released the $27M earmarked for data interoperability and technology upgrades for the five containerized ports in California. This grant program is designed to ensure that our containerized ports, which process about 40% of all containerized imports in the U.S., have the technology needed to remain competitive while also driving statewide economic, supply chain, and environmental benefits. ISC and our project partners Momentum designed and implemented this first-of-its-kind grant program, and we’re proud to mark this milestone as we move into the next phase of the project.

We want to extend our heartfelt congratulations to all five containerized California ports, who have been participating in this program since its inception last summer: Port of Los Angeles, Port of Long Beach, Port of Oakland, Port of Hueneme, and Port of San Diego. And of course, none of this would have been possible without the expert collaboration of Trelynd Bradley and Angela Shepard from GO-Biz. Shout-outs to Tre and Angela for being such awesome partners in this project.

The 10 awarded projects, from developing new data standards to reducing emissions via vessel routing tracking, were proposed by the individual ports and analyzed by the project’s Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). The TAC was formed early in the program by ISC to ensure that a well-rounded pool of technical experts reviewed and gave feedback on all proposals. The other members of the TAC aside from ISC are: Cloud303, Data CRT, and Latacora.

Another positive outcome from this project is growing cooperative technical relationships between the ports, working together for the benefit of all stakeholders. In the most notable example, ISC is at the forefront of negotiating the adoption of a Universal Trucking Appointment System (UTAS) between Port of Long Beach and Port of LA, serving the San Pedro Bay port complex. The UTAS, once implemented, will improve the scheduling of semi trucks (drayage) loading and unloading containers at both ports, cutting emissions and saving resources while making the lives of their trucking customers much easier. While there is not yet a formal agreement in place, we’re seeing solid momentum as a final solution and implementation roadmap is negotiated.

As we enter the implementation phase, ISC will continue to provide technical mentorship for all the approved projects, as well as technical mediation on the UTAS project, for the duration of the program. If you’d like to know more about the RFPs that the individual ports are putting out, or if you have a service you’d like to provide for one or more of these projects, please contact us and we can make an introduction.

More resources:

1. Full Report
2. Press release from GO-Biz
3. Program fact sheet