Poor timing!

Port users are fuming because
Transnet Port Terminals
(TPT) has decided to shut
down the entire SA port
network’s new computer
system on a normal business
weekend – when the very
next weekend is a holiday
weekend.
This is so that the new
Navis Sparcs N4 system can
go on-line at the Durban
container terminal (DCT) on
March 28.
According to Siyabulela
Mhlalaka, divisional executive
manager of TPT, in the
transition from the Cosmos
system to Navis, DCT
operations shut down from
06:00 on Saturday March 27
to 06:00 on Sunday March 28.
At the same time, he
advised, all the other Navis
sites at Cape Town multipurpose
terminal and
container terminal and the
container terminals at Port
Elizabeth, Ngqura, East
London and Pier 1 in Durban,
will also shut down from
18:00 on the 27th to 06:00 on
the 28th.
But road transport and
industry at large have serious
concerns about this choice of
dates, according to Malcolm
Sodalay, MD of Sammar
Investments and chairman of
the KZN harbour carriers’
section of the SA Association
of Freight Forwarders (Saaff).
“As we are all aware,” he
told FTW, “the next weekend
after the proposed shutdown
is a long weekend (Easter
weekend). This means that
industry will be preparing to
take advantage of the long
weekend, and we can expect
to be quite busy during the
proposed shutdown period.”
But, with the way the
shutdown is proposed, port
users anticipate major delays
and problems at the terminals.
“We are already
experiencing tremendous
delays at DCT without any
shutdown delays,” said
Sodalay, “and one hates to
imagine what this shutdown
will cause.
“We know from history
with wind delays that 24 hours
lost results in a catch-up that
takes approximately 14 days to get back to normal.”
The truckers and
their users are strongly
recommending that the
implementation be changed
to the long weekend when
volumes will be low and
the impact of the shutdown
will be minimal as most
organisations will be closed
for the holiday.
It is believed that the
harbour users’ bodies are
making their dissatisfaction
known to TPT.