The Hindu Business Line : Stir hits box movement from Chennai port

A strike by container trailer operators from Wednesday morning has affected movement of containers from Chennai port to various container freight stations located on the city's outskirts. There are over 3,000 trailers operating to the port's container terminal.

As a result, over 7,000 import containers have piled up inside the Chennai Container Terminal. If the situation continues tonight, the private terminal would not able to handle any more ships, according to user association sources.

The operators are demanding 100 per cent hike in freight rates, which currently ranges between Rs 1,100 and Rs 1,500. The hike follows restriction by officials of the State Transport Department in not permitting vehicles to be overloaded.

Hitherto, a 40-foot trailer or a multi-axle vehicle used to carry two containers (overloaded) and a single axle vehicle used to overload. However, in the last couple of days, the Transport Department has been penalising overloaded vehicles. Due to this, the trailers operators were demanding compensation from the trade for paying the penalty, sources said.

In a meeting with the user associations, including the Chennai Custom House Agents Association, Steamer Agents Association and the National Association for Container Freight Stations, the trailer operators demanded that the users pay an ad hoc payment of Rs 1,000 immediately. However, the association members requested operators for a week's time to discuss the issue with other users associations and clients. The operators did not accept this, and said they would return to talks later, the sources said.

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