President of the Barbados Customs Brokers and Clerks Association (BCBCA) Louis Forde says congestion at the Bridgetown Port can be solved once additional berths are constructed.
He was responding to Wednesday’s press conference where chief executive officer of the Barbados Port Inc. David Jean-Marie and Comptroller of Customs Owen Holder complained about a high number of uncollected shipments at the port, including more than 400 unclaimed vehicles. They said these vehicles will be auctioned off if not collected soon.
However, Forde said some blame must also be laid at the port as he listed several internal challenges and suggested they were reacting because Barbados might be a surcharge as a result of boats unable to dock here on schedule.
“As you may or may not know, a couple of cruise lines out of Florida want to charge Barbados and that’s just their charge because of the unreliability of getting the boats, getting the ships docked and on schedule. One of the reasons why, is the port may be a bit congested. There were other reasons as well before, like some sea surges, but those are kind of seasonal.”
He added that the challenge confronting the port was its inability to handle a lot of cargo around this time of the year.
Not on schedule
“The port can’t handle a lot of cargo and also the cruise line season is in, so the docking to offload the cargo ships is not keeping the schedule. The port and Customs are trying to see how they can maybe at first get some extra space or some additional space by asking persons to clear the vehicles as soon as they can.
“So, part of the congestion would be partly the port’s fault because they are doing a lot of things at the same time. And also, the cruise ships, they have to deal with them first and that throws out the boats.”
Forde said the situation with the vehicles was not new.
“The problem with the actual space that the vehicles are taking up is a traditional problem. So, that’s not a new problem, but if they weren’t there, at least they would have that space,” he admitted.
In terms of the threat
to auction off the vehicles if not collected, he said the Customs Department was also contributing to the delay in getting vehicles out.
“Customs is threatening people to put the goods on auction, but Customs also contributes to the problem in that they almost automatically investigate every used vehicle that comes in, and that can take up some time as well,” the BCBCA president said, pointing out that the new berth under construction could deal with the problem of space.
“There seems to be some space taken up with construction and all that kind of stuff. You see a lot of construction going on around. It will be temporary, but how long it lasts is another thing. The cruise ship problem could only be satisfied if we have dedicated berths for cruise and cargo.
“So, every winter, we’re going to have this problem. If we have four or five boats in, we don’t have the space to put the cargo boats. So, they have to wait until the ones that aren’t porting here leave. The ones that aren’t staying overnight leave. The cruise ships leave, then the cargo boats can come in and work.”
He added: “The other problem is that once the cruise ships are here, they need equipment as well. They need forklifts and stuff to help move around this stuff and that stops deliveries of cargo. So, until we get dedicated berths that we don’t have to start one to do the other, we’re going to have this problem at least every winter.”
Asked if a meeting was held with his members to address these issues, Forde said one was recently convened by Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley.
“This particular press conference came out of a meeting that the Prime Minister called with everyone in the industry to discuss the two separate issues – the surcharge, which is the capacity at the port, and the fact that the cargo boats can’t dock properly. And the other problems that we deal with on a daily basis. So, yes, there’s a committee that looks at these issues. We meet a couple of times a year or even more than that.”
In terms of who would pay the surcharge being demanded by the overseas shippers, Forde said it would eventually “come down to the consumer”. (MB)
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