Palace entertaining proposed lifting of all truck bans in metro

MANILA, Philippines - Secretary Jose Rene Almendras, who heads the Cabinet cluster that tackles the port congestion problem in Metro Manila, has assured the stakeholders in the port terminal services, importers and truckers groups that the government is looking into the proposal to lift all truck bans in the metropolis.

“That’s [what] we discussed [as part of] the solution as long term. The 'ban all bans' can only happen if we have the truck dispatch system,” he said.

Almendras was interviewed after the Senate committee on trade, commerce and entrepreneurship, conducted public hearings on Thursday to tackle the port congestion in Manila.

“In order for the truck dispatch system to work, we need to put the whole loop together with trucker, and container yard…It’s not only the port operator which needs to have the system,” he said.

Almendras said truckers should also be put into the system where trucks can be tracked. “This can only be done if we are also able to have integration with the container yards,” he said.

'Ban all bans'

It was Michael  Raeuber, president of the European Chamber of Commerce, who broached the idea of the “ban all bans” during Thursday's Senate hearing.

The group wanted to lift the one-hour extension of the truck bans, the ban on trucks on Christmas lanes and the daytime truck ban being implemented by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).

“Ban all bans. Do away with the ban as much as possible. We also do not really subscribe that the daytime truck ban imposed by the city of Manila really started it all. We believe it went back a little bit further in the past,” Raeuber said.

Raeuber pointed out to the one-hour expansion of the truck ban being imposed by the MMDA as one of the crucial reasons that contributed to the port congestion problem.

“This one-hour expansions seem very innocent but what is one hour in the morning and what is one hour in the evening. But in reality, it disrupted the cycle times. It took out almost 50 percent of the productivity of trucks,” Raeuber said.

“That is what started it, followed by the Christmas truck ban for a couple of hours, which led to another build up of vehicle. Then the daytime truck ban, that is when everything really went very bad,” he added.

Raeuber claimedthat the root cause of the port congestion problem was the reduced capacity of trucks to bring out and bring in container vans in the Manila ports, which was due to the various truck ban measures being implemented in the metropolis.

“The root cause of this problem is not the capacity of the ports. Right now, the ports have enough capacity. The root cause is the loss of productivity of trucking,” Raeuber said.

"Before each truck was able to deliver about 25 container vans a month. That number went down to about 10 to 11 at the worst, at the peak of the problem,” he told the Senate committee.

Raeuber noted that when Almendras and his team came in to address the issue, the productivity went back from 10 to 11 to about 13 or 14 container van deliveries a day for each truck.

“That’s the root cause of the problem… and everything needs to be geared at: How do we get back the productivity per truck?" he said.

Before the port congestion problem, Raeuber noted that the port can absorb by 7,000 to 8,000 trucks to deliver the same number of container vans.

“To reach the productivity of 10 to 12 (container vans per truck), you need to have 27,000 trucks… where this will come from is impacting traffic,” he said.

Christian Gonzalez, head for Asia, Pacific and the Sub Continent of International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI), supported the proposal to lift all truck bans in Metro Manila.

Instead, Gonzalez called on all concerned sectors to work for the establishment of a 24-hour appointment system, which “spreads load 24/7 and increases capacity dramatically at the ports.”

“If we do this, not only do we benefit everybody in trade, but we also put our country in the map in terms of infrastructure technology,” Gonzalez said.

Sean Perez, vice president for commercial and marketing of the Asian Terminal Inc, also supported the call to lift all truck bans.

Connector roads

Prior to this, Rauber said he is fully supportive of another proposal put forward by Richard Barclay, CEO of the Manila North Harbor Port, on the proposed “direct linkages to the three major ports in Manila.”

Barclay warned THAT the problem will worsen if the government fails to address the port congestion immediately. Barclay’s recommendation is part of THE medium- and long-term solution eyed to resolve the port congestion problem.

“Basically, this is a connector road swinging from SLEX and NLEX…direct highway that connect to our three ports and bypass all the Manila traffic,” said Sen. Bam Aquino, chairman of the Senate committee.

Almendras said connector roads are now being constructed to ease the traffic and enable container vans and trucks to deliver services faster.

“We are working on it now…connector road. I don’t think we remised in anticipating. But it really takes some time…Admittedly, the ban caused the congestion of cargos,” he said.