In what appears like a respite for motorists who ply the ever-busy Apapa-Oshodi expressway, the Presidential Committee on Port Reforms has assured that starting from next week; trucks laden with empty containers will no longer be seen along the expressway in Lagos.
According to the committee, container trucks coming in to pick or to drop their containers at the ports will no longer be coming directly to the port or queue along the expressway, they are now to be going to the holding bays of the shipping companies from where they will be called to the ports.
In what appears like a respite for motorists who ply the ever-busy Apapa-Oshodi expressway, the Presidential Committee on Port Reforms has assured that starting from next week; trucks laden with empty containers will no longer be seen along the expressway in Lagos.
According to the committee, container trucks coming in to pick or to drop their containers at the ports will no longer be coming directly to the port or queue along the expressway, they are now to be going to the holding bays of the shipping companies from where they will be called to the ports.
Briefing news men in Lagos yesterday on the achievements of the committee since its inauguration about two months ago, the chairman of the committee, Professor Sylvester Monye said that the committee had a meeting with the terminal operators and shipping companies in Abuja recently and that they have all endorsed the new procedure.
“It was agreed at our meeting that henceforth, there will be a triangular movement of trucks at the ports, all empty containers being brought to the port will be offloaded at the holding bays and off dock terminals, therefore those which enter the port are those that have cargo to pick or containers to clear, so there will be no more direct entry into the port, trucks coming into the port with empty containers will be going directly to the holding bays of the shipping lines, and when the containers are required at the port, they will be lifted from there” Monye stated.
According to him, no truck will be allowed to enter into the port without a permit which will henceforth be issued to the truck drivers, without this, they will not be allowed to enter into the port. He also assured that the there is no possibility of the new process being high-jacked.
Apart from the traffic on Apapa expressway, the committee also revealed that it has been able to reduce the number of days used in clearing of goods at the port from 39 days to seven days.
Speaking on this, Professor Monye said that a technical group had been put together by the committee to examine the challenges of achieving 48-hour clearance, and that the group has presented a template which includes five steps that will be followed henceforth in clearing cargo from the ports.
He was unable to disclose the five steps because according to him, the committee intends to place it before port stakeholders and other government agencies for them to make inputs after which it will be presented to the economic management team, and when adopted it will become the method of clearing cargoes at the port.
Speaking on the 24-hour operations at the port, Professor Monye pointed out that there are still challenges in achieving this because the port users are not yet convinced and aware that the ports are working at night.
“There are limitations to 24 hours operations because people are not actually coming forward to do business at night because they do not believe it is true, so we need to let them know”.
“We agree that the port cannot successfully work at night unless you have the structure as well as the personnel and experience especially in the area of pilotage, all these are being put in place and tug boats are being put in place by the NPA, this will allow us to achieve 24 hours at the port”./
He also assured that the collection of the controversial Cargo Tracking Note which has drawn complaints from maritime stakeholders have successfully been abolished by the committee and that it therefore does not exist anymore.
Discussion about this post