... but it's subject to certain conditions
pending the introduction of Cosmos
A SPECIAL agreement has been reached in Cape Town - with the open gates policy for haulier entry to the container terminal now to be introduced from May 1.
This offer was made by Portnet at a meeting of the Port Liaison Forum, and was accepted by the other members representing the private sector shipping and forwarding community.
A number of us have been ready for open gates at the port's container terminal from April 1 (the date legally fixed in Durban for that port opening up its terminal to private-sector container hauliers), said James White, operations manager of Seair Freight, and one of the Cape's representatives of SAAFF (SA Association of Freight Forwarders) on the committee. We were keen to get started and it was, therefore, immediately minuted that May 1 would be the go date.
This, however, will be an interim measure, according to Ronnie Kingwill, g.m. for western ports at Portnet.
From May 1 we will be operating open gates, and treating incoming private hauliers on the same basis as Portnet Cartage, he told FTW. But certain conditions will still apply.
The policy will only become fully operational and free-flowing once our new Cosmos computer system is up-and-running.
And that date, according to Sylvester Haanyama, g.m. finance at Portnet, has not yet been finalised although Portnet management in CT is still working towards a July 1 switch-on, according to Kingwill.
In the meantime, according to White, a number of those conditions mentioned by Kingwill are still under discussion.
One thing that we are anxious to resolve, White said, is the abolition of the transfer fee. This being a charge to be made to private hauliers - but not effective as far as Portnet Cartage is concerned. An extra cost that gives Portnet an unfair advantage.
Also on the agenda for discussion is the loading procedure in the terminal area.
This is currently planned to take place in a special transfer area - but has the added time and cost factors involved in moving the appropriate containers from the stacks into the transfer area once the container vehicle has arrived to do its collection.
The private sector operators and agents would prefer direct access to the stacks for loading, according to White. But, said Kingwill, while Portnet is not rejecting this idea outright, technical reasons in the current system make it problematic at the moment.
We are also keen to work under a fixed-time schedule for uplift, said White. A slightly-extended time slot would allow for the likes of traffic hold-ups, while scheduling throughout the day would prevent trucks queuing-up outside the gates in the morning, for example, if a first-come, first-served procedure was followed.
As far as Portnet is concerned, according to Kingwill, all these objections have been taken into account. Discussions will continue to take place, he said, and we hope that amicable solutions to all will be found before we go full-scale open gates later this year.
