Industry suffers a ‘Navis’ breakdown!

Some of the container
shipping companies running
liner services to SA are
up in arms about the crisis
situation being caused by
this month’ glitches in the
Navis port management
system that Transnet Port
Terminals (TPT) relies on
to keep things moving –
and costly delays to ships’
berthing are the result.
This led to a crisis
meeting being held last
Thursday (May 23) between
the lines and TPT at the
offices of the SA Association
of Ship Operators and
Agents (Saasoa) in Durban.
The official words from
Peter Besnard, acting CEO
of Saasoa, were that there
were a lot of glitches in the
system this month due to a
systems update on the May
Day holiday, but that TPT
was working round the clock
to sort things out, supported
by a whole team from the
system suppliers, Navis.
However, he did admit that
despite consolatory words
from TPT and promises
that they were doing their
best, they didn’t reveal
any expected completion
date. And this remained a
problem, he added.
However, one of the
shipping company executives
whose line was represented
at the meeting really had his
hackles up.
He complained to FTW
that his company had lost
millions these last few weeks
because of vessel delays and
their lack of productivity
– added to by ships having
to slip certain ports to keep
up to schedule, and the
costly exercise of burning
expensive bunker fuel with
the ships having to get up to
full steam.
And he didn’t accept that
TPT was trying to achieve
a world first by linking all
its terminals up to a central
server. A good system
might be the result, he said,
“but good for who, only for
TPT”.
“We feel the system hasn’t
got the strength to meet the
demands made on it. It’s
not running at 100%, and
it’s a problem that has been
happening week-in, week-out
ever since it was installed.”
Two other executives of
lines involved in the meeting
were less heated about the
matter, but still agreed that
the losses they were facing
were worrying.
Said one: “There have
been a lot of glitches,
leading to downtime and
inaccessibility to the system.
However, TPT agreed that
they would liaise a lot more
closely with the lines.”
Another said it had to be
accepted that the glitches
had caught TPT unawares,
and that they didn’t have a
back-up plan in place.
“But you have to
remember that every 15
minutes of downtime is a
three-to four-hour delay in
the logistics chain.”
So, until TPT and their
Navis support team get
things up to speed, it’s still a
big issue amongst the lines.
And there’s no indication of
just how long it will take.