THE impasse between haulage contractors at the Kingston container terminal and operators, Kingston Freeport Terminal Limited (KFTL), has been resolved for the moment.

The truckers who staged a protest on Monday are now back at work.

General Manager of the Port Trailer Haulage Association (PTHA) Ricardo Valentine told the Jamaica Observer yesterday that the workers have been in dialogue with the KFTL and assurances have been given that their complaints about slow turnaround time and issues with equipment were being dealt with.

The truckers had threatened to stay off the job until the KFTL made a commitment in writing to address the long-standing problems, which also sparked a protest in December of last year. Then, the contractors also lamented what they said was the worsening situation which was causing them to lose revenue.

“It’s very frustrating because they (drivers) are paid based on the amount of moves they make and oftentimes based on the challenges on the port they can only make one move in one day. If a trucker has six containers to move, for him to guarantee trying to move those six containers he has to use six truck heads… so essentially you’re operating at a loss,” Valentine said at the time.

He claimed that this has been a persistent problem since the port changed management last year.

The Government in July signed a 30-year concession agreement with French container transportation and shipping company CMA CGM, to manage and expand the Kingston container terminal, through local company KFTL.

Yesterday, KFTL pointed out in a release that it was already addressing the truckers’ concerns, having implemented a number of measures to mitigate excessive delays. KFTL said it had met with all stakeholders on several occasions, prior to Monday’s protests in an effort to address the concerns raised by the association.

“From these meetings, several changes were recommended to avoid future exceptional delays, some of which have already been effected,” the company said. It cited faster average gate turnaround time aimed at preventing congestion at the terminal; extended domestic operations work hours; and the acquisition of additional equipment to improve overall operations and data management.

Meanwhile, Valentine said that although the haulage contractors have received some assurances, “I can’t say we are overly satisfied with what we got,” but had returned to work in good faith. He said the association would continue to monitor the situation and had agreed to a fortnightly meeting with KFTL and other stakeholders to assess the situation on an ongoing basis.

“Over the next couple of days we’ll be monitoring the output. We expected Tuesday to be hectic considering nothing was moved on Monday and it was; Wednesday was a bit hectic as well. Today the movement is pretty slow so far,” he explained, but noted that the issue with pace has to do with cargo which is a Customs issue and one that has to do more with personnel than other factors.

Valentine said Customs’ Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA) is still being developed, and continues to present a challenge as when the system goes down, the tedious manual process has to be used.

— Alphea Saunders