Truckers: Steps to ease port congestion lacking

THE Confederation of Truckers Association of the Philippines (CTAP) has acknowledged the measures taken by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) to ease port congestion, but said much remained to be done to solve the problem, blamed for crippling trade and commerce in the country.

In a news conference on Friday in Manila, CTAP members said the shipping lines doing business in the country need to have their own container yards for storing empty containers, which will free up space at the ports and ensure a seamless operation for truckers.

“In fairness to the PPA and BOC, they are trying their best to solve the problem. But their solutions are half-cooked, it’s just like a band-aid solution. PPA issued a notice to the BOC to withdraw containers within 15 days. How can we collect these containers when we have empty containers in our trucks?” said CTAP Chairman Ruperto S. Bayocot.

Last week, the Manila International Container Port (MICP) of the Bureau of Customs (BOC), together with officials from international shipping lines doing business in the country, agreed to load out more empty containers per day, to bring yard utilization to ideal levels and resolve the recurring issues in returning empty containers.

MICP’s District Collector Atty. Erastus Sandino B. Austria, who is also the BOC’s spokesman, explained that the carriers will be taking advantage of the additional double transaction slots that International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) will be opening on weekends starting March 9 to 10.

If the measures agreed upon succeed, the MICP said that it sees around 17,500 empty twenty-foot equivalent units loaded out in a week compared to its high average of only 10,000 TEUs.

“CTAP is asking the general manager of the PPA to issue a memorandum order to the shipping lines that they should have their own container yard. We hope that the PPA requires international shipping lines to have their empties returned to any available container yard for us to effectively haul [within] the said 15 days. We cannot haul because there are a lot of empty containers,” he added.

CTAP VP for External Affairs Maria B. Zapata said the processing by shipping lines for arriving containers has also added to congestion in the ports. The shipping companies no longer publicly issue arrival notices, so the customs broker or trucker needs to go to their respective offices to get a hold of arrival notices for containers.

“What I would like to emphasize is that, the delivery order processing takes only a day [before], now it takes three days. This is one of the practices that shipping lines should improve,” Zapata said.

And, since container yards in the country are already fully loaded with empty containers, most trucking companies now have a number of empty containers in their possession, which results in their not being able to carry laden containers.

“No trucker has no empty at the back of their truck, all of us has extra empty [containers] in our possession, waiting against hope for the shipping lines to tell us where to deliver,” she added.

In terms of penalties, it was pointed out that P10,000 per day is charged for the delay in the release of a 40-footer container and P5,000 for a 20-footer container at the ports.

“They say that they have a low utilization rate but that’s not a fact, especially in the South Harbor, they seldom have that double transaction,” she said.

Meanwhile, the vessel queuing at the ports has been improving in line with the short-term solutions being undertaken by the government, with the number of vessels down to at least 15 from the previous 37 vessels at most.

Bayocot added that through CTAP’s own initiative, a lot in Cavite was rented out for one year to accommodate empty containers from truckers, which will now be able to accommodate the empties starting March 15.

“By next week, March 15, we have available space for empty containers. We identified already a space for empty containers in Carmona. It is available to accept all empty containers due for return.” While this will not solve all their problems, “this is a big help for us, so we can effectively haul the containers from the ATI [Asian Terminals Inc.] and ICTSI [International Container Terminal Services Inc.] to decongest the area,” Bayocot said. Rea Cu