Compromise reached over vehicle ban at CT port

A temporary compromise has been reached following the ban on the use of private vehicles to access the Cape Town agri-roro terminal. The ban met with vociferous complaint, with one user commenting: “What about possible delays to all aspects of vessel operations? Perhaps pilots and tugs will just be patient and wait when an agent can’t get to a vessel on time. “Not well thought out and not well implemented.” That was typical of the reaction of other concerned port users. But a more cool-headed approach by a group of ships’ agents met with success, in an issue dictated by Transnet head office, and not necessarily accepted willingly by the local terminal management who understood the problems facing the agents on their frequent calls to vessels at the terminal. As was found at the earlier imposition of the ban at the ports of Durban and Richards Bay, the alternative shuttle bus service laid on by Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) just wasn’t either quick or convenient. But, although the Durban/ RB complaints were met with a brick wall of port management opposition, the port users in Cape Town have been granted a period of grace. According to Kyle Stemmet, branch manager of King & Sons ships’ agency in Cape Town, a meeting was held with the agri-roro terminal management, and it was agreed that ships’ agents using the terminal would be granted a temporary reprieve. “They agreed that ship owners, ships’ agents, supercargoes and surveyors would be exempt from the ban for one month,” he told FTW. “This was provided that they had an overhead flashing light on their vehicles.” The next step, Stemmet added, is a meeting with Transnet’s national safety officer this week, which he hoped at the time of writing, would lead to a longer-term exemption being granted. The ban will still apply at other terminals in the port, and what is needed there is a larger number of buses, according to Stemmet, which could run at quarter-hour intervals.