Business as usual for ports over Easter

GOOD NEWS for users of the Port of Durban, with the Easter holiday declared by Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) a “normal working weekend” for the container facilities. “The Durban container terminal (DCT) will be working 24-hours a day as usual,” a senior source told FTW. That’s now a standard practice, according to Kevin Martin, MD of road transporters, Freightliner, and vice-chairman of the Durban harbour carriers division of the SA Association of Freight Forwarders (Saaff). Unlike the days when certain public holiday longweekends were shut-down time at the port – and logjams of containers stacked up and disrupted the flow through the terminals – it’s now 24/7, he told FTW, and 365-days a year (366 on leap years). Any disturbance to the flow is now more likely to take place at the receiver’s end, as private sector companies shut down their facilities for the holiday.