A section of cargo truck drivers have aired their frustrations over alleged premeditated obstructions and sabotage by certain container terminal operators in Tema.
Drivers who convey containers to various receiving sites after those containers have been offloaded from ships allege that foremen at receiving points whose jobs are to authorize machines to offload trucks at the terminals tend to stall operations unless certain undocumented payments are made to them by the drivers.
A section of truck drivers who operate within the Tema port and its affiliated terminals, allege that some container terminal operators, appear a lot more interested in receiving penalty payments and kickbacks before doing their jobs.
A section of drivers at the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) terminal in Tema , poured out with strong displeasure at the manner with which machines allocated for offloading trucks were deliberately stalled such that, the duration for offloading would elapse resulting in further surcharging.
“When we bring the containers for unloading, they intentionally delay us and refuse to pick them off our trucks because they know they will be collecting extra monies if our containers are delayed at the terminal”, said Ahmed Sulley, a driver at the MSC terminal in Tema lamented.
Ken Jato, a director at Global Cargo and Commodities Limited, Tema, speaking on Plan B FM’s morning show, Nkɔsoɔ Nsɛm, re-echoed the challenges of container transporters saying, “so much time is wasted at the terminals and so much money is lost in the process because sometimes the terminal operators unnecessarily delay the process of unloading the trucks. Sometimes our drivers are forced to pay extra charges without any reason. This is very unfortunate and quite frustrating”, he lamented.
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