Ray Smuts
THE LAUNCH by Portnet of a new terminal handling charge system which bypasses agents and bills the lines directly has brought a measure of
disquiet to the industry.
Corebis, an international-standard, Cosmos-friendly, terminal handling charge system (THC) will be
implemented in Cape Town and Durban from the
beginning of April while Port Elizabeth has been chosen to pilot the system this month (February).
To quote Ronnie Kingwill, general manager: containers, Corebis has become a rather controversial issue.
We have had extensive discussions with the agents so there are no surprises, but they are justifiably uncomfortable with the stance we have taken. We believe however that we are benefiting the total chain, said Kingwill, adding that a working
session to demonstrate Corebis to agents would be held in the Mother City some time in February.
Kingwill told FTW of the need to refine the tariff book by condensing the number of tariff lines and that invoicing would henceforth occur automatically and immediately upon a vessel's departure in order for payment to be effected within 30 days.
This would expedite
payments by up to three weeks on average.
Most controversial about Corebis is that we will be billing the lines directly and no longer the agents.
The consequence to agents is that their role in the business does change quite dramatically. But the conduit is between us and the line because we are handling boxes on behalf of the line and our job is to get the ship in and out and the boxes off as fast as possible.
Kingwill said Corebis is contentious because of the way agents have hitherto earned their revenue. They have been billed by us and then onbill the line, freight operator or cargo owner so they are the
collection agent and
manage the cash flow. Taking them out of direct billing to the liner operator has certainly impacted their interface with Portnet.
Corebis, it should be emphasised, is strictly a THC billing system and has nothing to do with wharfage collected from the cargo owner by the agent, so the latter will still be
significantly involved.
The agents become a very vital tool as part of the greater logistic chain in handling the interface in between what happens outside the terminal and what is happening with the cargo owner.
Portnet's challenge to the South African container industry, asserted Kingwill, is to lift service levels so that we can move towards international market-
related terminal handling charges, bearing in mind that our tariffs are warped by the wharfage factor.
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