Automation is clearly the way forward for all ports, and Transnet Port Terminals has made significant progress to end the paper trail. At Pier 1 truckers are already booking their containers via the internet. “We have set up a truck appointment system where truckers will in future come to the terminal either to pick up or drop off a box on an appointment basis,” says TPT CE Tau Morwe. “But we also need to be aware that as a country we have high levels of unemployment so we won’t replace employees with automated systems. “From a management information systems point of view, however, we will move to a stage where truckers and cargo owners can do everything from the internet. Even the terminal itself would have intelligence systems to assist employees in carrying out their functions.”