Pier One weekend shut-down draws favourable response

The weekend shut-down of Pier 1, the Port of Durban’s second largest container terminal, has met with little flak from the city’s freight industry. Quite the opposite, according to Kevin Martin, MD of Freightliner Transport and vicechairman of the Durban Harbour Carriers' Association (DHCA) – a KZN-based division of the SA Association of Freight Forwarders (Saaff). The closure was the result of the big drop in container volumes through the SA harbour system from the end of last year, and is the port authorities’ attempt to match the container handling supply with the declining demand. According to Martin, it started in December, when – if Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) decided the demand was insufficient to work the weekend – Pier 1 would close on Saturdays at 18:00 and re-open on Mondays at 06:00. But, a couple of weeks ago, this was extended – closing on Saturdays at 06:00 and reopening same time Monday morning. This closure of the cartage operations, according to Pier 1 spokeswoman Delene Bothma, was due to the low demand for cargo. The short-haul container truckers servicing the port – who have continually complained about shut-downs or slow-downs at the container terminals during the boom times of recent years – have changed their tune in these straitened times for the freight haulage sector. “The response (to the Pier 1 closure) has been favourable,” Martin told FTW, “from both the road transport operators and the others in the freight supply chain. “It saves the need for the likes of double-time payments for drivers and warehouse staff and the other extra costs for weekend working. So everybody’s happy that we don’t have to work at weekends, when there’s not much cargo to move.” Said Martin: “You can negotiate if you’ve got a large number of boxes (say 500 or more) to transport on any one weekend. And they’ll stay open if need be.” This “special cases” issue was confirmed by Bothma, who told FTW: “If the cargo’s enough to justify it – like a ship coming in over the weekend – we’ll stay open.”