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Drivers slam SCT for queue misery
Page 9
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DRIVERS AT Southampton Container Terminal (SCT) have complained to CM about huge delays and queues last week, only days after the port's management boasted it was the most efficient container terminal in the UK.
Agency driver Mick Rennison says he turned up at the dock at 3pm on Tuesday 17 August to pick up a load. Five hours later he gave up and was forced to pick up the container at 3am the followine, morning. Rennison claims exactly the same happened again on the Thursday, but when he returned at 5.30am there were still queues clogging up the dock. It was 10am before he was able to pick up his load.
"Owner-drivers are pulling their hair out," he says."But they just seem to put up with it. I have been there since mid-May and it's not been as bad as the past couple of weeks" Subcontractor Dave Oxley agrees that things have improved, but says SCT is not as efficient as the Isle of Grain; "As far as I can see they can't keep to their guaranteed times. The attitude of the workforce could be nicer too."
But SCI's MD has slammed the complaints as "exaggerated".
John Buckley admits there were "equipment availability" problems on the Thursday that spilled over into Friday, but he strongly denies anyone was queuing for five hours: "It's bullshit. There were by no means excessively long queues; it was an odd occasion."