Durban - Transnet says it is working with four transport logistics associations that represent more than 300 trucking companies to clear the current backlog at the Durban Container Terminals (DCT).
This follows Transnet announcing earlier this week that it had lifted the force majeure at the DCT following the strike by workers last month.
Managing executive at the Durban Terminals Earle Peters said the associations were open to working within the confines of the truck booking system and the new import storage rule.
Peters said the DCT had managed to reduce the number of vessels at anchor from 15 to eight two weeks after the strike.
“There has been an improvement in the availability of straddle carriers. We have also been monitoring trucks with high dwell times and transactions every hour,” he said.
Peters said several initiatives were aimed at maximising land-side capacity, including implementation of the adjusted import storage rule, allowing customers to collect their container as it is offloaded from the vessels.
“We have established a virtual interchange transfer zone to spread the volume to prevent congestion in one tower,” he said. Peters said the terminals have also introduced a performance-monitoring tool that allows supervisors to track and provide feedback to individual operators of equipment.
“Mass evacuation by rail of import containers to back-of-port facilities has positively contributed to the stacking yard and road decongestion,” he said.
Peters added that all the initiatives combined have resulted in improved operator moves per hour.
He said engagements with transport logistics associations Positive Freight Solutions, Change in Logistics, Harbour Carriers Association and the South African Association of Freight Forwarders were ongoing.
“While the terminals were estimating four months for the entire supply chain to fully recover, ongoing collaboration and engagement with industry was focused on how to reduce this period. A maximum deployment of straddle carriers and maximum allocation of working teams on weekends underpins the current recovery plans, supported by an immediate technical response to any equipment breakdowns,” he said.
Director of freight company, KZN Customs Clearing and Forwarding, Chris Moodley, said transporters were still having problems with uplifting containers from the terminals.
“They are not issuing enough slots to allow us to vacate our containers. So they themselves are making the terminal a storage facility by not releasing our containers, and then they blame the transporters that we are using the terminal as a storage facility,” he said.