Depots blamed for dirty containers

A new complaint in the contentious container cleaning saga points a finger at the depots nominated by the lines to clean containers. The complainant told FTW that substantial claims were flooding in from overseas for containers from SA that were said to be not AV (seaworthy). “It’s up to the nominated depots here to clean them and ensure they are AV,” he said. “But I reckon they’re not doing the job – and shippers or receivers are having to cough up for their incompetence.” He suggested that FTW put out a caution to all container users, urging them to keep a full record of the condition of all containers delivered to them as proof of the problem. “In these hard-pressed times,” he said, “all this adds costs to the industry.” An exporter, who did not wish to be named because of what he described as “the sensitivity of lines” to such complaints, confirmed the dirty container story. His company, he told FTW, is also having claims come in from overseas clients who are angry at receiving containers that were supposed to be cleaned in SA but were still arriving dirty. There’s no easy way out of this, he added, because if the SA user of these dirty containers delivered to him sends them back to be properly cleaned, he will have his export scheduling thrown completely out of joint, and face the additional cost of transporting the container back – a cost of about R800 per container. The answer, according to both sources, is for lines to heed the complaint and check their nominated depots to ensure that containers are properly cleaned.