Snaking queues frustrate transporters

DEPOT CONGESTION on Rosherville Road in City Deep is reaching epic proportions as snaking queues of transporters are often backed up for kilometres waiting to deliver and collect containers. “The trucks are just waiting in these long lines and the depots are doing nothing to speed things up,” Reddy Cargo director Arnold Reddy told FTW. “Hauliers are used for speed of delivery, but how quickly can a truck get to Durban if it’s stuck waiting for a container in City Deep?” “It’s like the national Lotto,” Georgi Georgiev of MSC said in response. “There are queues before the draw, and none the day after. It’s the same story here. When there is a great demand for depot services, the queue backs up and we are pressured to serve. We do our best; when it’s quiet, trucks come in and pick up in under 10 minutes.” But Reddy believes there could be better coordination outside the depot between trucks dropping off empties and those waiting to pick them up. “We have worked out a system so that our internal logistics flow can get the boxes in and out in the shortest time,” says Juan Enslin of Bridge Shipping. “We have appealed to the municipality and the metro police to assist us and come together to work out a solution, but they have been non-responsive to date.”