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.
