Stakeholders in the nation’s maritime industry has advocated for Terminal Delivery Orders, TDOs to be tied up to Eto call up tickets in order to stem the tide of racketeering that is fast eroding the gains of the initiative.
Speaking at a breakfast meeting on electronic call up system with the theme “Repositioning E-Call Up System For Optimal Performance”, organized by the Maritime Reporters’ Association of Nigeria, MARAN held in Lagos on Thursday, representative of the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA technical partner on e-call up, Trucks Transit Parks, TTP, Mr. Adekunle Ojo re-echoed a suggestion by one of the participants at the meeting that unless the TDOs are tied to call up tickets, we may not have an end to tickets racketeering.
According to Ojo, to achieve this would require a policy to drive the suggestion adding that once a policy to that effect is in place, TTP would have no option than to go by it as he believed it may go a long way in solving the problem.
His words, “So, I think there’s a lot to do here. That’s why somebody recommended earlier that we can link the TDO to the call up system such that once the TDO is raised, it cannot be transferred but that is a question of policy. If that policy is made today, then we will go by it. It may go along way in solving the problem.”
He however, blamed the licensed customs agents as one of the major forces behind the distortions in Eto Call Up System adding that in all the stakeholders engagement they have had, licensed customs agents had been identified as being responsible for major distortions in the system.
He said, “Truckers will always complain that when agents give them TDO and they are not able to get there on time, the agents change the TDO and give it to another person. That agents will always go for the highest bidder, that’s attitudinal issue, it’s one of the major factors causing distortions.
“You give Mr. A TDO today and because you have gotten a highest bidder, you change and give it to somebody else and that sequence has always been, it has always been happening like that. So, highest bidder has always been the order of the day and that has been responsible for the distortions we have in the system.
“And because the truckers also want to meet up, they want to ensure that they protect their TDO, they will start to look for ways to cut corners. Truckers who do not have the legitimate ticket will now begin to look for how to buy or fake it.
“In all our engagements, it has always been about agents. So, I think there’s a lot to do here. That’s why somebody recommended earlier that we can link the TDO to the call up system such that once the TDO is raised, it is not transferrable but that is a question of policy. If that policy is made today, then we will go by it. It may go along way in solving the problem.”
Also speaking, a member of the Nigerian Ports Consultative Council, NPCC, Peace Effiong suggested that TDOs should be issued to the trucks at the pregate and not at the gate insisting that that will go a long way in stemming the tide of tickets switching that rubbishing the gains of Eto call up system.
She said, “And that is the issue we have, switching of TDOs and a trucker will come to load a truck only to discover that another person has loaded that TDO. And what the agents do is that they will photocopy the TDO and give it to three people, whoever loads first, so be it. It happened to me several times and it is what the truckers are facing.
“That’s also a problem which the agents need to readdress their TDO through the pregate park. Issue your TDO there and when the truck leaves, the Eto Call Up will know that this truck has a TDO which was issued to it, it will key it in and release your truck to go out. Automatically, it eases our problem and ease the traffic.”
In his part, the President, Barge Operators Association of Nigeria, BOAN, Hon. Olubunmi Olumekun, while acknowledging that the TTP had made some level of progress in traffic management on Lagos Ports corridors, he however, maintained that there’s still room for improvement.
He thereafter warned that government should not allow those who were not in the business, those who don’t know anything about cargo to be placed at the helm of affairs in cargo management, even as he identified it as one of the problems the TTP was having.
“Just like the TTP official said, that agents give TDO to the highest bidder, if you have done a proper thing, the highest bidder menace will not come up because even the highest bidder issue affects the owner of the cargo. By the time you give somebody your TDO to carry something and he gets to the gate, somebody offers him a higher price, he will abandon your own cargo and collect another one.
“But by the time that cargo is tied to the ticket, it’s already automatic, you can’t take another ticket because the container number is on that ticket. So, let’s have the container in the ticket so that when you have the cargo on the ticket, nobody can go for the highest bidder.
“So, going forward, we are not going to end here, I want to round by saying that we have moved forward but we can do better. But we need to know that we are competing with neighbouring countries, Niger is there, TTP has call up system there, they are doing it in a simplest way but our own here, anything we want to do will always be different. Why are we gathering at this time for call up?”, he queried.
Photo: (L-R): Representative of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, NSC, Ese Egbosimba, Chairman, Nigerian Ports Consultative Council, Mr. Bolaji Sunmola, MARAN President, Mr. Godfrey Bivbere, President of Barge Operators Association of Nigeria, BOAN, Hon. Olubunmi Olumekun who doubled as the Chairman of the event, President, National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents, Mr. Lucky Amiwero, Mr. Ayodele Durowaye, General Manager, Managing Director’s Office, NPA and Port Manager, Lagos Port Complex, Mr. Charles Okaga during the breakfast meeting in Lagos yesterday.
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