General manager of the Port Trailer Haulage Association, Ricardo Valentine, said this morning that the process of clearing a container is taking between two and four hours instead of the normal 30 minutes due to inadequate equipment and frequent breakdowns of port machinery.
Valentine says the problem has prolonged despite assurances from the management of the Kingston Container Terminal that it would be addressed.
He says the delays in clearing containers is causing truckers to miss deadlines set by their clients and this is resulting in them losing money.
Further to losing business, Valentine says truckers have to pay demurrage charges at the port as well as downtime and stock out costs when they do not deliver containers on time.