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More misery at Southampton
Page 9
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Southampton docks delays are getting out of hand again — and the port lays some of the blame on the hauliers themselves. Jennifer Ball reports.
ANGRY TRUCK drivers at Southampton Container Terminal (SCT) continue to face lengthy delays, despite promises from new MD John Buckley that all vehicles would he dealt with in less than an hour (CM 20 May).
William Hale says he queued for two hours to get a slot in the vehicle booking system (VBS) queue followed by another two hours on the quay to unload. "I can't afford to wait around," he says ." Margins are tight enough already."
Frank Dean,from Southampton firm Commodore Haulage, says: "We are still being kept waiting for hours. The terminal has stopped Sunday loading and as soon as a ship comes in truck drivers are pushed to the back of the queue.
"Maybe it would be better to go back to the first come, first served system," he adds. "At least every one knew where they stood."
According to another operator. John Ward, the chairman at PMP Logistics, for the first seven months the new initiatives did appear to be working. But he reports that things started to go wrong in August.
"Turnaround times are now at best two to three hours and at worst upwards of four hours,Ward adds.
"Things are now close to rock bottom and driver morale is pretty much as low as it can go," he warns. "There is a real danger that some bloody good blokes will walk away from the industry."
But SCT's business development director Derek Smith has hit back at operators' criticism of the fast-track system.
"We are doing our very best," he says. "On a Monday 500 vehicles could go though the system and there will be a 25-minute turnaround. The next day there will be 800 vehicles. There is simply not enough spread of vehicles throughout the week.The problem is in the hands of everyone, not just SCT."