Have you ever wondered who keeps containers like the Boomerang Box moving once they reach port? Well, meet Gerry Gorham. As the Owner of Bay Area Container, he’s responsible for keeping containers moving on and off the docks.

Gerry Gorham founded his company, Bay Area Container, in 1984. His company hauls cargo containers throughout Northern California with a fleet of trucks. Gerry works with companies in the Oakland area helping them move their products. But he spends most of his time working with shipping company APL Limited.

Bay Area Container is APL’s Oakland “hopahouse trucker.” That means that Gerry’s company is the first called when APL needs cargo containers moved... and he is always ready to respond. In a typical month, Gerry’s company hauls 3,000 containers for APL and about 500 for other companies.

When an APL ship comes in to port, Gerry expects to be busy. As cargo containers are unloaded from the ship by crane, trucks have to be ready to take those containers either to the rail yards — where they are loaded onto stacktrains to continue their journey by rail — or to warehouses or stores in Oakland and San Francisco. Once a ship comes in, every minute counts.

To handle APL’s trucking needs smoothly, Gerry has a staff of six people who help him track paperwork and make sure the trucks are at the right place at the right time. He also contracts with 40 “owner-operators,” people who own their own trucks and are paid by the container to move cargo for him.

What does Gerry do when a ship loaded with thousands of containers comes into port early? Download the case study and find out!