Truckers’ complaint ‘nonsense’ – TPT

The Cape Town container
truckers were up in arms again
last week, protesting about
an unannounced one-hour
stoppage at the Cape Town
container terminal (CTCT)
first thing on the Tuesday
morning – after a two-hour
shutdown the previous
Thursday morning, followed
by a one-hour closure in the
afternoon.
“This time, the gate was
shut between 06:00 and 07:00,”
said John Berry, head of the
Cape Town Harbour Carriers’
Association (CTHCA). “There
was no notice given once
again, and the reason was said
to be a system fault – one of
the many regular excuses that
we hear.”
Although he described the
result of the closure as “not
too bad”, he did complain
about trucks having to queue
up outside the terminal gate
waiting for the re-opening.
“People have labour on
stand-by waiting for delivery
of the containers – and who
pays for this waste of time?”
Berry asked.
But the truckers’ moan was
“all nonsense”, according to
Transnet Port Terminals (TPT)
terminal executive, Richard
van Schalkwyk.
“We do a system re-boot
every Tuesday morning,” he
told FTW. “It’s a planned shutdown
each week at 06:00, and
all the harbour carriers know
this.”
And it was not an hour, he
added – saying that the first
re-boot failed, and at 06:20 the
second was tried. “The system
came back-up at 06:30,” said
Van Schalkwyk, “and the first
vehicle was processed at 06:37,
immediately followed by eight
other trucks before 07:00.
“We obviously can’t give
any advance notice when a
system fault like this suddenly
happens.”