New procedure should end Durban truck queues

TRUCK QUEUES waiting to get into the Durban container terminal (DCT) – queues that back up as much as five to ten kilometres (with up to 100 trucks per kilometre) when an accident intervenes, delaying trucks for hours and locking up a number of accesses to southern suburbs of the city – could soon be a thing of the past, according to Kevin Martin, MD of Freightliner and vice-chairman of the Durban harbour carriers’ section of the SA Association of Freight Forwarders (Saaff). What supports his assumption is the fact that the construction of a new access road and a gate into the DCT is about to be finished, and the DCT’s current order of truck entry checks – which truckers have long criticised as being in the wrong sequence - is being reversed. According to Martin, a major benefit of the new facility is that it will initially have parking space for 50 trucks – but is due to have this increased to 300 vehicle capacity by June. “This 300 truck holding space will, almost on its own, go a long way to taking the truck queues off the terminal’s sole access road,” he told FTW. “They are also changing the truck entry checks to an A check (where trucks have their documentation checked, are pre-sorted and operational control tells them which tower to go to) followed, at the main gate, by the P check (the security clearance, where drivers’ licences are checked, that trucks are registered with Transnet and have harbour entry permits, and DCT personnel check the container and its seal). “Once you pick up your import container, you then go through the P out check – where they make sure you’ve got the right box on your back.” That’s a sane sequence, according to Martin, and allows a more fluid access to-and-from the DCT. “It’s a much more intelligent way of working,” he said, “and once the system is working properly it should help sort out the truck queue problem.”