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Storage ban brings delays
Page 14
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As a container storage ban hits Southampton Container Terminal, operators are still complaining about growing queues. Guy Sheppard reports.
A TOTAL STORAGE ban on empty containers at Southampton Container Terminal (SCT) is prompting renewed protests from hauliers about delays.
The ban was introduced on 8 September after a surge in container traffic at the beginning of the month flooded the terminal and surrounding yards.
Derek Smith,business development manager for terminal operator SCT, says: "We now have 10,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) and are trying to get it down to between 4,000-5,000. We are in the peak season and will be exercising control measures for the next six to seven weeks."
Last month (August) SCT claimed the terminal was the most efficient in the UK following measures designed to end delays for hauliers (CM 19 August).
But owner-driver Noel Gibbons from Cornwall claims the ban brought the terminal to a standstill on Friday (10 September): "You could not get boxes off to put loaded boxes on. I was lucky but it still took me seven hours to get a box change." He says the ban has angered numerous operators because it was introduced without warning.
But Smith says no operators arriving at SCI. should be unaware of the ban because container movements are controlled by the shipping lines.
-Hauliers would contact the shipping lines before they set off as a matter of course so information can be put into our computer."
He adds that empty container bans have been introduced in the past but have only affected individual shipping lines.