‘TPT needs to tell the full story’

I refer to the article headlined “30 second truck Stop” ( FTW July 17, 2009). I would like to place on record that Durban ALREADY has such a wonderful gate at Pier 1 – with another coming on stream by January 2010 at Durban container terminal (DCT). But what our chief operating officer of Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) forgot to tell his audience about was what is often hours of staging BEFORE this facility – and then the wait to get loaded at the tower! While not wanting to appear negative at the positive things being done to improve service at the terminals, let’s not get ahead of ourselves with rosy smoke-and-mirror presentations to the public that raise what I believe to be unreal expectations from their transporters to improve service levels and more importantly lower prices within the logistics chain. Any regular reader of FTW will know about the frequent articles reporting on protracted delays at terminals (and many unhappy road transporters). Lots of hard work still lies ahead in the years to come (yes, readers – years), before, I believe, we will start to see positive vehicle turnaround times and possibly a more realistic decline in transport prices that do not have this “built-in” hidden cost to the logistics chain to cover these protracted delays. “30-seconds” indeed. In a pig’s eye. Let’s keep it real.