THE Port Trailer Haulage Association (PTHA) yesterday confirmed that the backlog of containers on the wharf that led to them parking their trucks a few weeks ago has been cleared.

At the same time, the truckers union and Kingston Freeport Terminal Limited (KFTL) have agreed to work together to address issues that may affect smooth operation at the port.

“We have formed what we call a technical committee between ourselves and them, which will have weekly meetings to look at the issues on the port and together try and work them out,” PTHA General Manager Ricardo Valentine told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.

Valentine was responding to KFTL’s release on Wednesday, stating that it had “managed to clear the backlog in the processing of containers for shipment and clearance, which resulted partly from the suspension of trucking services by haulage contractors during the August 8-9 period”.

According to KFTL, a French subsidiary that operates the port, a collaborative effort with the Port Authority of Jamaica and the Jamaica Customs Agency saw employees working extended hours over several days to help ease the backlog.

“Over the period August 14 to 18, 2017, KFTL managed to deliver and receive 641 containers per day, which is 33 per cent above the 2017 daily average and 10 per cent above the traditional peak of December, with turnaround time at the gate trending down to an average of 45 minutes,” the company explained.

The truckers had withdrawn their service out of frustration at the long turnaround time in clearing containers, which was affecting their clients.

In a news release on August 11, the PTHA said it had six to seven meetings with KFTL, Customs and the Port Authority, highlighting the problems and expressing dissatisfaction at the inefficient service.

“At those meetings we articulated to them that we are prepared to accept a 45-minute turn time for the receival and delivery of containers. This led to the terminal giving some commitment to a turn time of 30 minutes. The assumption was made that Customs and the scanning operations would be about 15 minutes, thus totalling 45 minutes turn time,” the PTHA said in a release at the height of the crisis.

“Unfortunately, since those meetings, we have not experienced any consistent improvement in the service level, as on the days when the receival and delivery volumes were low the service level improved, but as soon as the volumes increased we encountered lengthy delays,” the PTHA said.

The situation, the association said, came to a head on August 4 when as early as 8:30 am truckers started to encounter lengthy delays upwards of five hours with many still waiting to be processed at midnight.

“This was occasioned by the terminal decision to deploy the majority of the equipment resources to shipside activities as there were some large container vessels in port,” the PTHA added.

Yesterday, Valentine said that while the turnaround time has not yet got to 45 minutes, “movement on the port has been eased”.

Asked what would be the ideal turnaround time for his members, Valentine said 10 to 15 minutes.

“Initially in our discussion, not only with these new managers of the port, was that 30 minutes was the target, but we said in light of the challenges that they’re having we’ll settle for 45 minutes. But certainly we want to be sub-20 minutes as that would help our members because people need to move multiple containers,” Valentine explained.

He said the association is aware of some of the problems being experienced by KFTL, including training personnel to operate new equipment which, the company informed the truckers, will take about six weeks.

“So there is a time before they can put in new people and make up the shortage of operators,” he said.

“We also know that they are changing and tweaking some of the operating processes on the port, so hopefully between us we can reach somewhere soon, but to say that we are right there now, no. But we can confirm that we are satisfied that the backlog that existed is now cleared up,” Valentine said.