By Femi Anamelechi
These are not complimentary at all as Freight forwarders and licensed Customs Agents in Nigeria raised alarm and lamented the exploitative devices of shipping companies and terminal operators at PTML The vice President , Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria ( APFFLON) PTML Chapter, Mr Abiola Abiodun lamented the recent exploitations at the terminal Mr Abiodun in an interview with our correspondent noted the state of corruption at the terminal , according to him there is a new method of exploitation of stakeholders each time the Servers experience a down link. He said the incident means that whenever the server is down, there will be no movement of cargoes out of the terminal area.There is usually a three days grace period for roll-in roll-out vehicles to be evacuated before charges start counting and a five days grace period for containerised cargoes. The new antics of linking the check out to the server makes nonsense of this arrangement as the barriers at the gate will not lift up for vehicles to move out when the server is down. He disclosed that all efforts made by stakeholders through dialogue and protests to the management of the Ports Terminal Multi-Services Limited (PTML) who are a sister company to Grimaldi Shipping Line were either thwarted or no positive response.
This development Mr. Abioudun pointed out while stakeholders incur extra costs because of this new action by the shipping line.The APFFLON Vice President regretted the rather unpleasant experience and disclosed other example of the exploitation that they are facing. He said” that two ships- Grand Gabon and Great Abidjan were to arrive Nigeria in that order through the Grimaldi Shipping Line. The Grand Gabon came in one hour before the Great Abidjan, but to my disappointment the shipping company, PTML started evacuating the Great Abidjan first. This is a ploy to have the cargoes in the Grand Gabon stay at the terminal and incur extra cost in the form of demurrage to be paid to the shipping company.”Mr. Abodunrin suggests that if the terminal operators, the PTML is sincere, they should have close circuit television cameras at the gates to help monitor the flow and movement of cargoes out of the terminal area and cut wasted time.
