The British International Freight Association (BIFA) has called for government intervention at the Port of Felixstowe as cargo handling delays are being blamed on the misuse of its Vehicle Booking System (VBS).
Hutchison Ports-owned Port of Felixstowe, which has faced criticism over congestion and delays in recent weeks, said it has been monitoring the use of its Vehicle Booking System (VBS), which allows bookings to be made without a container associated with the booking, and found a problem with overbooking of vehicle slots by hauliers. BIFA said freight forwarders are suffering major operational damage and incurring significant additional costs from operational delays at the port.
“We wish to retain as much flexibility as possible but its design has encouraged some hauliers to secure as many bookings as they can, irrespective of their actual need. They then return unwanted bookings at the last minute by which time they are of limited benefit to other firms,” said the port.
In the week beginning the 28 September, 11,704 bookings were returned and 6,679 bookings were unused, explained the port.
BIFA Director General, Robert Keen, said: “The debacle in 2018, when the port undertook a disastrous migration to a new in-house terminal operating system appears to be at the root of the current VBS problems, which is exacerbating the congestion problems caused by other issues; including a huge increase in container moves ahead of the Golden Week in China; reduced container moves per hour at the quayside and serious staffing issues.
“BIFA members have suffered from two years of poor service from the port, and we feel that there is a need for independent arbitration managed by Government to address the many issues faced by the port’s users.”
To improve the efficiency and availability of the VBS and offer reliability to shippers, the port said it has increased the number of bookings available on both terminals.
From 12 October, VBS changes mean all bookings between 11:00 and 19:00 without a container associated with it 4 hours before the time of the booking will be lost and automatically reclaimed by the system; all other hours remain unchanged; reclaimed bookings will be re-released for general use but it will be mandatory to attach container details at the time of booking; and no show charges will continue to apply to any bookings made but not used.
The port said has also made additional information available via its website to show the number of bookings available, the number taken and the number that went unused at different times of the day.
