Sapo refutes haulier's claims over delays at Durban terminal

'Equal attention accorded to land and waterside operations' A WAR of words has erupted over delays to private transporters moving containers in and out of Durban Container Terminal. Omega Containers last week accused SA Port Operations of focusing its efforts on the handling of vessels rather than attending to all aspects of the port operation, an allegation which Sapo has flatly denied stressing that the Durban Container Terminal is operated on a balanced plant principle, according equal attention to land as well as waterside operations. "The landside operates on a 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 363 days a year basis similar to the waterside," Sapo landside operations manager Louw Jacobs told FTW. "What is currently posing a formidable challenge to all parties within the supply chain is the fact that up to 80% of road traffic is delivered and collected during a 12-hour window generally between 10:00 and 22:00 despite the terminal gates being open on a 24 hour basis. "The convergence of hauliers during this period creates a huge peak in demand and places tremendous pressure on resources, in some cases resulting in the violation of terminal capacity." Omega however maintains that its delays Ð up to six hours per trip according to a spokesman Ð are caused by a shortage of straddle carriers. "Our understanding of Portnet's system is that there should be three straddle carriers working each tower in the terminal at all times. "In our recent experience there has only been one straddle carrier available for each tower, with possibly one extra straddle carrier that runs between those towers that are extremely busy. "It is very frustrating to see in excess of 40 vehicles queued at one tower, working with one straddle carrier, whilst other towers have no trucks at all, and both the straddle carrier and its driver stand idle for the entire duration of the shift." Omega claims that its productivity has been reduced by as much as 60% on certain days. "If we are unable to complete a shipment in time, Portnet benefits in terms of additional storage or late arrival charges and these costs are borne by the lines (our customers who are also Portnet's customers). "Portnet is one of those rare organisations which actually profits from its own inability to perform the task that it has been assigned." While Omega concedes that the introduction of new straddle carriers appears to have benefited the lines "modestly", he claims that productivity at the towers seems to be deteriorating because only old machines are available to them. Sapo disagrees. According to Jacobs several measures have been introduced in an attempt to smooth the peak in demand at DCT. These include : l Increased stack opening and closing time slots from two to four; l A "bulk run" concept where higher volumes are fast-tracked through the terminal at night with dedicated resources to the benefit of all users; l Deployment of additional resources; l Daily provision of statistical information indicating peak and off-peak periods. "In addition the next batch of new straddle carriers will be deployed on the landside as planned in accordance with our "balanced plant" approach while continuing with our straddle carriers driver training programme. "Our records reveal that trucks are turned around within 40-45 minutes on average. "Secondly it is totally incorrect to suggest that only one straddle carrier is deployed per tower. "Thirdly it must be pointed out that a full fleet of straddle carriers is deployed on the landside and these machines are indeed routinely deployed in accordance with work load demand. To suggest that some machines are idle for a full shift is ludicrous and we categorically deny it. "We would welcome an opportunity to meet with the writer of the email to clear up the misconceptions."