The International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) called for short- and long-term solutions to the logistics problems faced by the country which the port operator blamed for lack of coordination among too many government agencies trying to solve those same problems.
“The core problem is really the fact that there are too many decision makers. In the Philippine environment… you have too many cooks in the kitchen,” said Christian Gonzalez, executive vice president at ICTSI, at the general membership meeting of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday.
“ I would then suggest to whoever the decision making body is that we do things short term,” he added, suggesting to maximize the use of existing infrastructure by eliminating the impediments on those infrastructure, align the hours that people are working, adopt the right technology including appointment systems and digitize everything “in a way that everybody is marching to the same beat. “
While these are being done, Gonzalez said long-term action would call for the creation of “ more purpose- built infrastructure geared toward solving supply chain and logistics problems, which in turn will allow a free flow of private vehicles as well.”
While not opposed to cargoes being diverted to other ports, ICTSI believes in-city ports like the ones in Manila will remain critical.
“The cargo will go where there is consumption. This is a developing, consumption -driven economy. We need to manage our supply chains and the traffic around the supply chains in such a way that ensures this consumption can continue to grow.
I’m certainly not against cargo going to other ports, like Subic and Batangas In fact, the cargo that is being consumed in those areas. Nevertheless, we do need to understand as a fundamental issue that cargo is going to go where it is consumed, and where it is most efficiently transported to serve that consumption base,” Gonzalez said.
This means with all the consumption driven out of Metro Manila, “we are going to have cargo moving through the streets of Metro Manila” and therefore “ we must ensure facilities, cities and ports can work together. “
He cited big in-city ports like those in Hong Kong, Vancouver and Melbourne and Cape Town where terminals operate within communities.
Gonzalez said logistics operators are not able to maximize the use of existing facilities which can run 24 hours.
“Not many people take deliveries in the evening; compound that with customs and other government agencies not working on the weekends, not working at night when it comes to X- ray and cargo and all the different rules being applied in relation to where trucks can go, where the trucks are banned, what time trucks can go into one place, what time they can go to another place,” Gonzalez said.
This in turn results to just making use of the infrastructure at just 20 percent of its availability, doing half or one delivery per day that leads to more trucks on the road which creates even bigger problems.
Gonzalez also suggested to tap the appointment systems which have been very successful in most places where there are ports in cities.
“Another thing we need to do is to utilize digital systems to create efficiency. This will allow us to reduce a serious inefficiency in the transport system which is the movement of empty containers,” Gonzalez said, adding this contributes to 25 percent of the cost of logistics that is passed on to the consumer.
“The only way to solve that is to use technology to minimize this. At the same time, you will need support infrastructure depots parking areas so on and so forth,” he added.
“It’s a matter of having a singular efficient system that allows everybody to get the most efficient movement of empty containers or empty trucks and delivery trucks as possible,” Gonzalez said.
He noted impediments on the roads should be removed for freer flow of container trucks.
“The simplest and cheapest way to solve an immediate problem is to get rid of (things) that shouldn’t be there in the first place,” he said, citing deliveries done on the road, shops, informal settlers among others. Irma Isip
