Cost of inefficient ports to consumers

FERDIE FERREIRA

THE MARITIME industry in Singapore is one of the best in the world. Quality work, competitive prices. The former prime minister of Singapore, Lee Quan Yew, stated, “The aeroplane may have taken over the bulk of the passenger traffic, but into the foreseeable future, no technological breakthrough can replace ships as the most efficient and economic form of transportation of goods. If we can build a reputation for fast work of good quality and fairer prices, this can be one of our great industries.”

So said, so done.

On February, 25, the Trinidad Guardian carried two very interesting and informative articles on the port industry. The first had to do with recent industrial action taken by the SWWTU at the Port Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (PATT ), the current state of the port, and finally a World Bank report that rated the port’s performance at 239 out of 389 international ports. I hope the minister is aware of this.

The other article by Dr Averne A Pantin gave a fairly comprehensive review on the sustainability of ports. He stated, “Port sustainability is rooted in three pillars of sustainable development that embrace environmental, social and economic goals. Its primary purpose is to seek a safe, socially acceptable energy/efficient and environmentally friendly port. While maximising profits, practical and multi-disciplinary management techniques are required to integrate the socio-economic, legal, technical and environmental practice, and to analyse the performance of sustainable responsibilities with appropriate data on components of sustainability.”

All academic terminology, which I cannot or will not question. However, as a retired deputy general manager of the Port Authority, a non-professional with over 30 years of experience in the industry, I wish to state that I was a little surprised that neither writer made reference to the cost of inefficient and low-productive ports, and the serious effects on the consumer. In my humble opinion as a layman, ports, environmentally friendly or otherwise, have three major objectives, referred to as RS&D:

1. Receiving and exporting cargo as expeditiously as possible.

2. Stowing the cargo at a location convenient to the importer/ exporter. Making it as easily accessible as possible.

3. Delivering the cargo imported/ exported as expeditiously as possible to the customer/ship.

The most important ingredient in this industry is time. All of this is simply called RS&D and ETA (estimated time of arrival).

I have stated on several occasions that ports are the lifeline of a country. From time immemorial mankind has depended on this mode of transportation of goods for our survival. From the cradle to the grave, we are dependent on ports. Yet in TT successive governments continue to treat our ports as bastard children, saddling them with inexperienced, sometimes incompetent board members and management, poor infrastructure, environmentally unfriendly operations, extremely poor security and maintenance services.

All resulting not only in our low-performance classification, but the sometimes astronomical costs of goods to consumers, who continue to blame everybody else except those responsible for our inefficient and low productive ports that continue to operate at highly questionable rates of container turnover movements per hour. The business sector seldom accepts the astronomical costs of these inefficiencies. Invariably from importers and commission agents to the retailer, the cost is passed on to the consumer.

Every delay in the shipping industry comes at a cost that is finally reflected:

1. At the retailers’ outlets.

2. In our pocket books.

It would be quite interesting if our port experts, inclusive of the two writers, conduct an intensive audit into the cost of our port operations generally. Inclusive of the cost of overtime at PATT on weekends, the management structure, and the costly inter-island transport service.

The industrial relations writer identified some of the problems at PATT . The other writer identified sustainability and the environment.

In conclusion, I now call on these qualified experts to investigate:

1. The performance level of our port operations from the CEO down.

2. The cost of these operations.

3. The cost effect on the consumers. Even at this advanced age I’m available to share my limited experiences on the significance of this industry on our daily lives.