INTEGRATE TO DECONGEST
The Durban port’s 'Decongestion Task Team' has identified several sources of congestion at the Port of Durban. These are being addressed through targeted work streams that cut across the entire value chain of the port. Some are already under way, while others are in the planning stages. According to Moshe Motlohi, general manager at the Port of Durban, the task team meets fortnightly and has a clear mandate to decongest the port. All of the work streams are underpinned by root cause analysis and strong stakeholder engagement.
ALIGNING OPERATING HOURS OF THE KEY NODES OF THE VALUE CHAIN, DEPOTS AND WAREHOUSES
A team has been appointed to look at this. The goal is to have depots that are open 24/7 to enable the transporters to move cargo 24/7. The benefit here will be traffic smoothing and the trucks will do more trips per truck day.
TRUCK APPOINTMENT SYSTEM
A key intervention has been the reintroduction by terminal operator Transnet Port Terminals of a mandatory truck appointment system, which is considered best practice in the container sector globally. Since 27 March the system has helped to reduce waiting times and enabled the terminal to control the rate of collections and deliveries and use landside capacity optimally. This system also allows planned volumes to be spread across the day.
A TRUCK DRIVER INDUCTION PROGRAMME
This will address the delinquent behaviour that has been evident among some truck drivers. This progamme will be conducted by the Maritime School of Excellence. Metro Police have also been deployed in and around the port to assist with traffic management and law enforcement.
ADDITIONAL STAGING FACILITIES
The idea is to create more staging facilities outside of the city to complement the recently introduced terminal booking system.
TERMINAL EFFICIENCYThis is central to everything that happens in and around the port. The focus has been to put in place the correct number of teams and cargo handling equipment, to improve the maintenance regime, and to introduce proactive spares management and a mandatory slot booking system. New equipment will be purchased, initiatives will be put in place to address employee morale, and there will be increased effort to maintain existing equipment to deliver better reliability and efficiency. Delivery of 23 new straddle carriers is expected between June and July this year.
PORT ACCESS
Bayhead road has been problematic for far too long. The fact is that a port the size of Durban cannot afford to have only one access road. Two projects are under way to address this; firstly, the Bayhead Road expansion, where the task team has asked for the expansion of Bayhead Road by adding one lane on each side of the road, and secondly, a second access road to the port.