Amede: More sailings of Cabo Star useless

Horace Amede, President of the Truckers and Traders Association, says additional sailings of the cargo ferry, the Cabo Star, to allow for stocking up on goods, would benefit neither truckers nor Tobago businesses as Trinidad merchants have stopped extending credit until payments on previous purchases were paid up.

“Trinidad merchants not giving any more credit so even though they put on an additional day for sailing on Saturday, it not making much sense…merchants are adamant that they will no longer be giving credit because they are saying a lot of Tobago businesses owe them,” Amede revealed in an interview.

“If we don’t have as much people and visitors as the island to consume the goods, then the businesses would not make have enough money to pay the merchants. It doesn’t make sense to stock up of heavily on goods. Since 2015-2016 and nothing has changed,” he added.

Amede said as it were, truckers were currently having problems transporting goods to Tobago from Trinidad because of limited spaces on the Cabo Star. He also said many truckers were stranded at both Scarborough and Port-of-Spain ports on a daily basis – that they load their trucks onboard the Cabo Star but then cannot get a space on the fast ferry

The Port Authority (PATT) recently announced that as from August 25, the Cabo Star will be sailing every Saturday until the vessel is sent on dry dock on September 20 for 10 days.

PATT has said the additional sailings were to allow Tobago businesses to stuck up on goods.

In a letter sent to the Tobago Chamber, the TT Inter-Island Transportation Company (ITIT), explained it was as yet unsuccessful in sourcing a replacement cargo vessel to serve the sea bridge from September 20-30, and was considering additional sailings on Saturdays of the Cabo Star as well as using the TT Spirit passenger ferry to assist with cargo services

Newsday Tobago learnt that businesses were not considering the option of stocking up since past experiences have shown that they were force to discard expired goods given low demand due to slowdown in consumer traffic.

Businessman Claude Almandoz, commenting on the Saturday sailings, said larger distributors would benefit from the initiative, but that for him, sales were slow at his hardware.

“We have the bigger distributors who will benefit. Sales are not the same where they were when we could stockpile, and some creditors are saying once you at a certain debt level, there is a lock off and if you cannot pay cash, you won’t get goods. “Foreign currency is already scarce and it will be hard for merchants to buy resources and continue to give it on credit.

“I have suffered that in the past few months and these are with people we have done business with for a number of years,” he said.

Almandoz said he does have stocks to last for the 10 days the Cabo Star would be on drydock and hopes that the maintenance period would not go beyond its time.

“The only thing that would detrimental for me with this 10 days is I have foreign imports coming in and if it doesn’t come before (September 20) so I can clear it, I am going to have to leave it in Trinidad where it will cost me until the vessel return to the sea bridge,” he said.

Distributor Tommy Elias told Newsday Tobago the Saturday sailings would benefit businesses if they engage in strategic planning.

“September is usually a slow month, so I really don’t think there will be a crisis. People have to plan and organise our businesses and we will be alright. I anticipated we would have slower sales in this recession so where I would have normally ordered a certain amount of goods, I would cut it down and I would order more frequently,” he said.

Asked about Tobago businesses having to deal with losses from expired goods, Elias said this had nothing to do with the cargo vessel but with the planning abilities of Tobago businessmen.