Draft policy excludes inland ports

THERE IS serious danger of a monopoly being created between port terminal operators and shipping lines with the implementation of Portnet's new pricing policy which excludes port users other than shipping lines. That's the view of Roland Naidoo, managing director of RailRoad Africa, who told the parliamentary portfolio committee on transport in Cape Town last week that the draft white paper on the proposed national commercial ports policy would work to the detriment of inland ports. "The white paper focuses on users, but currently Portnet is permitted to determine who users are by setting price policies which eliminate all except the shipping lines," he said. Naidoo lashed out at the manner in which important port users, including forwarders, intermodal operators, exporters and importers were sidelined when it came to Portnet's mode of operation. "Any company moving freight must have easy, direct access to the port authorities, but this is not the case," he said. "All communications with Portnet are steered towards the shipping lines and the industry as a whole is not taken into account. It is the task of intermodal companies like ourselves to get traffic moving through the supply chain, but the present system provides a serious barrier." Naidoo said the white paper dealt exclusively with commercial ports to the exclusion of inland ports.