Shift from rail to road worrying – MSC

MEDITERRANEAN Shipping Company (MSC)
East London branch manager Barbara Taylor
remembers when rail was the preferred means
to transport goods between the city and Port
Elizabeth.
That ended when the then Spoornet increased
the rates overnight and forced the industry to
shift to road. That traffic has now grown to some
400 heavy trucks a day travelling along the R72
between the two Eastern Cape cities.
This has led to rapid deterioration of the road
and even newly refurbished sections are showing
signs of wear.
With plans for the upgrading of the port
of East London on hold, Taylor believes it is
important that Transnet makes it a priority to
provide a cost-effective service between the ports
of Port Elizabeth and Ngqura to East London in
order to support growth in the Buffalo City metro.
“Meanwhile, we continue to use the truckers,
where we can have containers discharged off the
ship in Port Elizabeth at two in the morning and
trucked to East London, to be with the client by
eight that same morning. We thrive on providing
the highest level of service possible,” she says.