Foremost vehicle handling terminal in Nigeria; Five Star Logistics Limited, has come hard on Nigerians who import vehicles. The terminal’s General Manager; Mr Wofgang Schneider said last week that more than 40% of vehicles that come into the country can not be driven even out of the terminal.
Schneide disclosed this recently in a chat with Shipping Position daily in Lagos on the sideline of the visit by the management team of Tin Can Island port led by the new Ports Manager, Engineer Emmanuel Akporere.
Speaking further on the state of such vehicles, t he General Manager, Five Start Logistics also said that most of the cars either come in without battery or are badly damaged that they cannot move.
He also said that the terminal off-loads up to 1000 vehicles monthly and most of them come from Europe.
“Most Vehicles that come through this terminal come from Europe and they normally come with a lot of loads and up to 40% of them are damaged; either they have no battery or they are damaged in such a way that they cannot even start, they have to be toed out of the ports when cleared”, he disclosed.
Mr. Schneider said that the terminal has the capacity to accommodate 6000 imported vehicles adding that it has enough equipment that will handle that huge number.
“Here at Five Star terminal, we have a space that can take up to 6000 vehicles; we also have modern equipment, extra power and scanners that will make vehicles clearance easier for importers. We have a platform that takes record of all the vehicles their colours, model, make and the year’’.
The General Manager told our correspondent that the terminal is currently flooded with a huge number of overtime and abandoned vehicles.
‘’We also have over 3500 overtime vehicles customs should do something to clear them out, because they are occupying our spaces here. We deliver up to 200 vehicles daily and we work from 10am till 6pm every day”
He also complained of lack of parking spaces for vehicles adding that sometimes the terminal leaves imported vehicles in containers because of space.
“We do not have enough parking space, so most times we leave them in the containers. We have been pleading with NPA to extend the quay size, they should take more vessels out and they are bringing them in. There is hardly any empty container going out”.
He also said that the terminal has lost over 10,000 imported vehicles to other countries.
“Some of our cars are being transferred to our off-dock; new cars are being delivered immediately to the owners or the companies. We have lost over 10,000 vehicles this year they no longer come to Nigeria. We are also working on changing our computer system” he concluded.
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