Alabama State Docks Could Raise Fees to Cover Security Costs

    Nov. 15, 2004
    Cost of federally mandated measures would be passed on to shippers, eventually consumers, adds $2 per container, $1 per passenger, 5 percent of total dockage

    Source The Mobile Register via Associated Press

    MOBILE, Ala. (AP) -- Shippers using the State Docks could end up paying more to cover the cost of federally mandated security measures resulting from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

    Docks Director Jimmy Lyons said he plans to recommend approval of new fees when the Alabama State Port Authority meets Nov. 23 in Mobile.

    He predicted the fees, if approved, would generate up to $1.2 million annually. At that rate, the new revenue would cover about half of the docks' anticipated new annual security-related operating costs of $2.3 million. In contrast, the docks spent about $1.4 million on security-related operations in the 2000 fiscal year, the last full year before the Sept. 11 attacks.

    Lyons said shippers will likely pass on the additional cost to consumers.

    The proposed fees are at minimums set last month by the members of the Gulf Seaports Marine Terminal Conference. They include $2 per box for containers, $1 per passenger, and 5 percent of the total dockage assessed on a vessel per port call.

    The Mobile port plans to have its fees effective Jan. 1, Lyons told the Mobile Register in a story Monday.

    "This is not a competitive issue. It's about finding a way to pay for costs for security requirements that we all have and that are all needed,'' Lyons said.

    The American Waterways Operators, which represents about 375 owners and operators of tugboats, barges and towboats, strongly opposes the proposed fees, saying that shippers are also faced with mounting security costs.

    "We don't feel like it is right. We've had to come up with our own vessel security plans, upgrading equipment, training personnel, all of those costs,'' said Anne Burns, an AWO spokeswoman.

    The American Association of Port Authorities supports the proposed fee structure, a spokeswoman said.

    "While the federal government is still giving some funding, the funding level is significantly less than what the funding need is. It doesn't pay for operational or personnel costs,'' said Susan Monteverde, director of government relations with the AAPA in Arlington, Va.

    Tim Parker, chairman of the port authority, said he intends to vote for the new fees out of the best interest for the port. Parker, who operates a Tuscaloosa-based barge company, Parker Towing Co., said carriers won't like the new fees but they will accept them.