TPT mulls weighing stations outside ports for VGM

Transnet Port Terminals (TPT)
plans to explore the possibility
of offering weighing equipment
just outside its ports to assist
those customers
who do not
have access to
weighbridges
on all the
national and
regional trade
routes.
This was
confirmed
to FTW by
Zeph Ndlovu,
general manager of TPT, on
the sidelines of the South
African Association of Freight
Forwarders (Saaff) Congress
2016 in Johannesburg.
TPT was on the receiving
end of a fair amount of criticism
for not offering weighing
facilities at the ports in the
lead-up to the implementation
of the International Maritime
Organisation (IMO) Safety
of Life at
Sea (Solas)
verified gross
mass (VGM)
regulation on
July 1.
But, said
Ndlovu, it
simply wasn’t
feasible due to
the increased
congestion it
would cause. “However, we
have taken our customers’
needs into consideration
and are investigating the
possibility of establishing
weighing stations just
outside of our respective
ports.”
Service delivery manager:
enterprise information
management systems at TPT,
Neelan Ranchod, said that
these should be implemented in
the “short- to-medium-term”.
“There are a lot of issues
we still need to iron out, not
least of which is obtaining
the equipment and ensuring
it meets all the required
international
specifications,”
he said.
Furthermore,
TPT needs to
identify a site
from which to
launch a pilot
project to test
the viability
of the plan,
and address any potential
challenges that may arise. “At
the moment we are looking
at launching this pilot project
near the port of Port
Elizabeth in
the Eastern
Cape,” said
Ranchod.
INSERT & CAPTION
We have taken our
customers’ needs into
consideration.
– Zeph Ndlovu