Worrying decline in 'abnormal' cargo skills

The clearing and forwarding industry is rapidly losing staff skilled in project and abnormal cargo, and this frequently creates chaos in the supply chain, according to Carl Webb, MD of Project Logistics Management and a member of the abnormal loads committee of the Road Freight Association (RFA). “What I’m finding, and it’s very worrying for the transport industry, is that this type of experience is fast disappearing from the c&f sector, and nothing is being done to replace it. No apprenticeships being taken – nothing. “The new staff members are trained in containers or breakbulk cargo clearing and forwarding, but not in abnormal loads, so we’ve ended up with them having a very blinkered approach. “We’re seeing project cargo going through these c&f controllers, and it’s a complete fiasco.” A recent example, according to Webb, was an abnormal unit on a flatrack. It was too heavy to be unloaded at the Durban container terminal (DCT). So it had to be moved across to the Point by the floating crane, where it was unloaded and dumped directly onto the wharfside. A mobile crane then had to be hired to load the unit onto a trailer, and the flat rack returned. “It was impossible to get the c&f controller to understand that it was now two pieces of cargo, and needed two sets of documents,” he told FTW. “But Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) was not happy with this mess-up, so it demanded that we move it breakbulk – and that’s much more costly.” Unfortunately, Webb added, this type of thing is becoming common. Anything that is out of normal is more difficult to manage because of this lack of understanding. “It’s paper people who are coming through in the c&f industry, not practically experienced people. And it’s scary, as the mess-ups that this creates lead to the port authorities introducing more rules – which just makes things more of a problem for us. “There’s a lack of experience, and it’s not being addressed. We’re losing out on knowledge of what’s possible, and how to achieve it. A disaster scene for the abnormal transport industry.” INSERT ‘It’s paper people who are coming through in the c&f industry, not practically experienced people.’