Agents slam
30% increase
Alan Peat
AGENTS IN Gauteng are raging about shipping lines having increased the turn-in fees for empty containers by R150 for 20-foot boxes, and R300 for 40-ft.
This, according to Errol Myburgh, import manager of UTi, and speaking on behalf of the SA Association of Freight Forwarders (SAAFF), is about a 30% increase.
And, he complained to FTW, this is a cost which the lines can hardly justify.
There's no excess of empty boxes floating around on the Reef, Myburgh said. Indeed, as far as the forwarding community is concerned, there's actually a shortage of boxes for agents' export consignments, he said.
"They're not going back to Durban empty so there's no extra cost for the lines.
"Effectively, this is Johannesburg subsidising the other areas of the country."
But the lines disagree, according to Iain McIntosh, national sales and marketing manager for P&O Nedlloyd, one of the three lines and four ships agencies which have already announced the increase.
"We have far too many empty boxes on the Reef. Overall Ð allowing for short-term ups-and-downs in the volumes Ð equipment going in is imbalanced by a shortage of equipment coming out."
And this, McIntosh added, is costing the lines 30% more, largely because of Spoornet's rates increase last year.
"This R150 is only a small contribution to the extra cost of equipment on the Reef."
