‘Blame antiquated equipment, not the shipping lines for port inefficiency’

I REFER to the article in FTW re New Pier service incompetence written by Alan Peat (FTW May 12, 2006). As the chairman of the New Pier users’ forum, a forum made up of the shipping lines that call New Pier 1, we take exception to the fact that Kevin Martin blames shipping lines for inefficiencies at Pier 1. Whilst I concede that some of the lines might occasionally be late with submission of ICLs, something we as a forum are working hard to alleviate, the root of the problem at Pier 1 lies in the fact that they do not have adequate equipment to work the terminal effectively and this in my view is the main cause of the delays. They currently operate with antiquated “hand me down” straddles, which are continuously breaking down, and this is what causes delays. The situation is exacerbated when there are more than two ships on the berth at any one time, as the terminal does not have enough equipment to work two vessels and still service the gate in gate out function effectively. As a forum we have been onto Sapo for the past two years re equipment problems and whilst we appreciate initiatives to upgrade the terminal, we will only see the benefits of this upgrade towards the end of 2007. In the interim users will have to endure the pain of delays caused not only to truckers but to vessels as well, as a result of continuous equipment failures. Obviously terminal congestion plays a role here, but the situation could be greatly alleviated if the terminal had enough working straddles to effectively work both land and sea side operations at the same time. Having said that I need to applaud current terminal management for making the best out of a bad situation and doing their best under very trying circumstances. I feel that the situation could be improved if Sapo were to deploy a few additional straddles to Pier 1 in the interim to assist the operation until such time as rubber tyred gantries are fully operational. Rhett Van Zyl