Transporters have called for greater transparency in the allocation of truck booking slots at the Durban Gateway Terminal (DGT), saying progress in clearing long-dwell containers has not reduced congestion at the gates.
Positive Freight Solutions (PFS), which met with DGT management and other port stakeholders on September 9, said hauliers continue to face difficulties securing slots to deliver and collect containers.
PFS Chief Executive Alex Hill told Freight News there has been “no measured reduction” in congestion since the meeting.
“There is little to celebrate. Truckers still struggle to evacuate and deliver containers,” Hill said.
“Longstanding containers have been cleared off the stack and we acknowledge that as real progress. It has not reached the gate. Our members are still waiting to get in and still waiting to get out.”
He said the problems experienced with the Navis truck booking system relate to transparency rather than technology.
PFS has proposed that DGT should publish the number of slots made available at each gate per hour, followed by data showing how many were allocated and used. It has also called for an audit trail recording every slot released or withdrawn and the reason for the change.
“An allocation system that cannot be audited cannot be shown to be fair whatever the intention behind it,” Hill said.
“None of this requires new software and that is the point. We require transparency and partnership. They have the challenges and we are offering partnership for greater good.”
He said transporters offered equipment and logistics support to DGT during the stakeholder meeting but the offer was not accepted.
“Our view is that the landside problem needs capacity outside the gate as well as reform inside it. That is why we are putting forward multiple proposals to DGT and Transnet National Ports Authority,” Hill said.
Delays drive additional costs
Hill said gate congestion is increasing driver overtime and vehicle standing time while delays in collecting and returning containers expose cargo owners to demurrage and detention charges imposed by shipping lines.
“When a terminal cannot release a container, the container sits. While it sits, demurrage and detention accrue,” he said.
“The delay is caused by a party they cannot control, the charge is levied by a different party altogether and the cost falls on them.”
Hill alleged that independent hauliers are placed at a disadvantage because waivers of demurrage and detention are, as experienced by PFS members, easier to obtain when the inland leg is handled by a shipping line’s own haulage service.
He also claimed that the conditions governing the release of containers and equipment affect merchant haulage differently at a time when shipping lines are expanding into inland transport, container depots and warehousing.
Hill said this creates a market in which independent hauliers and cargo owners are charged for delays they have not caused by shipping lines that are increasingly competing in the inland logistics market.
These allegations are part of a complaint PFS recently lodged with the Competition Commission against DGT, Transnet and eight shipping lines over alleged anti-competitive conduct.
“That is what our complaint is about. The terminal is the mechanism. The lines are the beneficiaries,” Hill alleged.
“Congestion is not the story. The story is who pays for it and who is paid for it. Our members are charged for hours in which nothing moves by parties who are increasingly their competitors in the inland leg.”
He said PFS will also approach the Ports Regulator if necessary although transporters remain willing to work with DGT to resolve the terminal’s landside problems.
“We would rather solve the terminal aspect of this matter across a table than through a regulator,” Hill said.
“That offer remains open through partnership and collaboration. The conduct of the lines is a different matter and that one is going the distance.”
In response to questions from Freight News, a DGT spokesperson said the terminal has agreed to provide periodic operational updates to the stakeholder forum that attended the September 9 meeting.
“In line with that commitment, the next update will first be shared with the forum. Once stakeholders have been briefed, the same information can be made available to the media,” the spokesperson said.
