Alan Peat THERE’S BEEN a move in the right direction regarding delays to hauliers at the port of Durban. According to Paul Rayner of SAAFF’s Durban Harbour Carriers division, three-way talks between the private sector, SA Port Operations and the metropolitan traffic authorities in Durban are currently underway as they try to find methods of solving the problem. First result is a pat on the back for Sapo, as they move towards doubling the present 16 bays inside the terminal area to 32. There are also three gates into the terminal - and previously these only did “P checks” on the incoming vehicles, with the “A check” of documents only being conducted in the bays inside the terminal. “Sapo has now opened one gate to offer both P checks and A checks,” said Rayner “Vehicles can, therefore, go straight through to the tower without having a second stop in the bays to wait for the A check as has previously been the case.” But this, he added, is still at experimental stage. “Sapo obviously doesn’t want to follow this double check at all three gates at present until everything is sorted out.” Meanwhile, an offshoot of the delay at the terminal gates is a back-up of heavy goods vehicles along the two-lane access road to the terminal. “The problem here is that this road is often completely blocked by delayed vehicles - and this means that other container depots in the area can’t be reached. “We are currently discussing this with Sapo and the Metro and might see an answer soon.” At the moment, Bayhead Road has two incoming lanes to the terminal. “We are hoping for a third lane,” said Rayner, “which would be dedicated to traffic to the private container terminals in the area.” Rayner feels that it would be possible to take one lane off the outgoing two-lane road “where there is no congestion,” he said. The harbour carriers and depot owners hope to have a meeting with the city engineers and Sapo to authorise the removal of the present traffic island along the middle of the road, and allow the opening of three lanes on the incoming side. Rayner also told FTW that road hauliers should not overlook the fact that productivity at the DCT had already improved dramatically over 2002. “The throughput is now up to 2 600 vehicles a day compared to 1500 being a BIG number a year ago.”
