The Hindu Business Line : Truckers protest against go-slow by CCTL workers

OPERATIONS at the Chennai container terminal came to a standstill on today after truck drivers, frustrated by a go-slow by Chennai Container Terminal Ltd (CCTL) workers, parked their vehicles haphazardly inside the terminal disrupting movement of quay cranes.

On Thursday night CCTL's non-management employees resorted to a go-slow over wage-related issues, said industry sources.

According to a trailer owner, over 300 vehicles are parked inside the terminal. Frequent go-slow by CCTL employees led to truckers waiting for hours to load and unload boxes. On an earlier occasion, CCTL management promised port users that it would clear boxes in 4-5 hours, but it is now taking 10-12 hours. Trailers often queue up to a distance of over six kilometres waiting to be unloaded. Following the latest incident of go-slow, drivers are no longer willing to put up with such delay and want a solution to the problem, the owner said.

A vehicle consumes ten litres of additional diesel for each trip into the harbour, the vehicle owner said. Following the stoppage of work, there is a long queue of trailers laden with containers parked from the harbour entrance at Royapuram in North Chennai, he said.

This is the second time in the last three weeks that container handling has come to a halt at the terminal. On May 23, CCTL's non-management staff went on a ten-day strike affecting box movement in the terminal. The workers were then demanding a wage increase. CCTL, a company formed by P&O Ports, operates the container terminal.

The Southern India Chamber of Commerce and Industry in a release has said that before January 2004 the productivity in the terminal was about 25 moves per gantry per hour and it has dropped to 14/15 moves. Due to poor productivity, the turnaround time of container feeder vessels has increased to 5 to 6 days, from 24 hours.

Further, no customs inspection or direct delivery is permitted by CCTL from the terminal, which has increased the transaction cost for the trade. Also, there is no certainty that the container would be moved to off-dock container freight station within the stipulated period adding to ground rent being payable to CCTL. The trade is suffering due to the inefficiencies of CCTL, and it is the terminal operator who should bear the additional cost, the release says.

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