Opportunists target export containers in Durban

Alan Peat
COMPLAINTS HAVE reached FTW of pilferage from export containers, some with seals replaced locally, immediately identifying where the theft occurred.
Elaine Strydom of Move-It Removals is one of the victims, with a number of her international household removals containers having been targeted somewhere in the Port of Durban before leaving.
A recent shipment to Germany, for example, arrived bearing a Portnet seal but a different number from the one notified to Move-It's agent.
Roland Pucher, m.d. of Robeck International - who do "a fair amount" of removals, he said - fears that these break-ins in the port area are becoming more common.
"Out of every 50 containers we ship, about one or two are interfered with," he told FTW. "There is evidence that these containers are being broken into in Durban.
"With the break-ins on the railways being taken care of by door-to-door loading, it seems to be happening more and more in the harbour itself."
In the case of international removals, Pucher feels that - although the criminal element often seems to know what's inside the boxes - it is not the big syndicates which are responsible, but the opportunist thief. Syndicates tend to go for whole shipments of high-value goods (the TVs, videos, cell phones and other electronic goods, for example) and those which are easy to sell in quantities (like spirits and cigarettes, shoes and clothing).
These opportunists going for removals consignments only select the one or two items which they can easily sell "on the street corner".
And Pucher is not confident that padlocking containers - although Robeck is now padlocking every container that leaves SA - is the
ultimate solution.
The only answer, he said, is greater security at the port.
"You can put padlocks on containers," he said, "but, with the right tools, the thief will always get in. There are other ways to secure the boxes, but they're very expensive.
"The answer is not to seal the
containers, but to secure the whole area they are stored in."
Pucher also recommends that the shipper would be wise to make sure that his boxes don't stay in a
container yard, or at the likes of City Deep, for more than 24-48 hours.
And it's not just the break-ins that worry him.
"It happens on a very regular basis that the seal we put on (at our warehouse or at customs) is not the same one it arrives with," Pucher said, "sometimes with accompanying
pilferage, sometimes not. I'd say this is witnessed for about 10% of our containers."