KNOCK THEIR HEADS TOGETHER!

“About the only thing we can do to improve these figures would be to knock the drivers’ heads together to stop them hitting things!” jokes Figueiredo, conceding that in Liscont’s increasingly crowded yard environment, such accidents are virtually inevitable. Quizzed as to whether the performance of individual drivers is monitored in this respect, he concedes that this has proved difficult, given that drivers prefer not to report such incidents.

Curiously, at Termavi, operations manager Remigio Zapico says that the number of incidents involving driver damage is insignificant, despite the fact that the tyres used have no tread, light masts are protected by fenders and yard space is also at a premium. While 10% damage does seem to be a typical figure banded about in the industry, if some terminals are achieving a zero-rate figure then clearly they are doing something which others are not, although Zapico was unable to identify why exactly his terminal has been so successful in keeping damage to a minimum.

In addition to driver error, tyres being shredded by pieces of metal displaced from the containers themselves is clearly a problem, with P&O Ports stressing the need to keep the terminal area as clean as possible as perhaps the only way of minimising this.

However, tyres lost to punctures caused by metal pieces is not viewed as being a major problem at either Vigo or Lisbon, where smaller terminals could conceivably be easier to keep clean.