The Roll of Dry Ports in the Supply Chain

We at Share-List Property were kindly invited by Warwick Lord of the Cato Ridge Logistic Hub Consortium (CRLHC) to join the Transport Forum. As a result of this, Peter Edmonds was able to watch the zoom conference, where an assortment of industry experts updated the industry on developments in their specific fields.

The forum was titled "The theory of constraints - The Roll of Dry Ports in the Supply Chain".

The various experts included:       Mr. Connie Vermaak (Quatro Business Solutions)

                                                            Mr. Mike Daniel (Rail Runner South Africa)

                                                            Dr. Leo Petkoon (L P Projects)

                                                            Mr. Gerhard de Beer (Technical Executive)

                                                            Mr. Warwick Lord (CRLHC)

                                                            Mr. Paul Dickson (Crickmay)

The presentations were all around the issue of the bottleneck in the supply chain between the ship and the final destination. These included the reasons, the solution and then the specifics around the likes of Thambo Springs in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng. The other is the well-known Cato Ridge Dry Port, which is of particular interest to the KZN audience.

What was discussed is that a lot of time is lost between the various modes of transport, from ship to harbour, to rail or freight truck. It seems that once the vehicle transporting the freight is mobile, South Africa is more or less on a par with the USA .... shorter distances, but similar times. The use of rail freight in SA is however, only between 6% and 7% due to the reduced productivity that frequently occurs. The speed of trains is irrelevant when you reach destinations, only to have to wait longer for processing to be done. This causes the whole supply chain to stagnate. With this comes the private sector involvement to assist in expediting the process between origin and destination, with long haul trucking. It is a clear that  the biggest impact of excess cycle time is at harbour terminals. Reducing the cycle time at the terminal, reduces the number of wagons needed in the cycle. Reducing the number of wagons in the cycle increases the productivity of the process.

So how is this achieved? Well the presenters, who jointly have hundreds of years of experience, at high level logistics management of various forms, seemed to agree that the way forward was to introduce private sector Intermodal Terminals/Hubs. This allows for design around a more seamless transfer from one mode of transport to another, unlike present process and procedures with outdated infrastructure and inefficient handling methods. Unlike passenger rail, freight is passive and can't influence the process to perform more efficiently. At present the rail facility is capable of somewhat more. The dry port offers a modern sophisticated and streamlined handling process for all/most modes of transport. This really needs to be in the best location to provide such a service and optimise the handling process, reducing dwell times and shortening the cycle from origin to destination. Intermodal Hubs, from what I learnt, need to be equipped to handle all sorts of storage from short term to long. This includes cold storage facilities as well as services for both the freight/ freight handling and the people doing the work. It needs to accommodate both 3PL and 4PL requirements. The facility should have a customs handling process as well as a freight forwarding capability. It also needs to have a first class truck staging area with all the necessary means for drivers to rest and recreate etc. Another key component is that it should assist with the socio upliftment of the local community.

The benefits in having the Dry Port/Intermodal Hub in the right location is that it brings along all the associated opportunities, including servicing of vehicles, container repairs as well as packaging and security opportunities, with supply chain management to one stop, track and trace operations.

With Dry Ports situated outside of the main centres, but located in the direct line from source, you achieve the perfect logistic solution for all parties, providing the opportunity for freight movers to move product quickly from the Dry port to destination or to the port. Other transport options and all the local handling and warehousing can continue in a more cost effective environment, due to benefits achieved from reducing the  bottlenecks and costly stoppages. Staging of trucks will limit heavy vehicle traffic during peak traffic periods, including traffic in the harbour, thereby also reducing congestion and unnecessary accidents.

It was stated very succinctly, that Dry Ports, such as the proposed Cato Ridge Dry Port can and should become Freight Villages providing a complete solution in the form of a disrupter and allowing industry to provide for regional short haul, warehousing, including stuffing and unstuffing of containers.

The benefits are clear, from nett reduction in traffic and therefore accidents, reduced and  more cost effective maintenance to both road and rail, increase in real estate requirements from housing to shopping centres etc. , improvements in the socio economic situation of local communities and uplifting the standard of living.

It is clear that the port and back of port delays are currently the main causes of the excessive congestion, aggravated by poorly regulated cargo handling throughout the city. On top of this, the badly managed heavy vehicle traffic control measures, to and from the port, are the main ingredients for the real need for the Cato Ridge Dry Port to be implemented sooner rather than later.

From the presentations it was clear that the need for following was paramount:-

• Public and private sector collaboration.

• Accurate and truthful planning allowing for investment opportunities.

• Customs and procedures to adopt newer, more advanced and quicker technologies.
• Better reporting processes that can unsnag processes more expediently.
• Infrastructure that is available before its demand, allowing the logistics industry to easily perform its true function.
• Continued and accurate costing, allowing for infrastructure and other requirements to be planned and funded.
• Effective movement control measures, allowing for the logistic and traffic, as well as customs management to be operated seamlessly and in realtime. It should also allow users and clients as well as logistic operators to effectively manage and track stock and traffic throughout the cycle. This would  provide up to date "door to door" access and monitoring.

What was very clear to me was that the private sector were doing everything to make it possible for the public sector to be able to take advantage of, well thought out, solutions to an ever increasing problem that seems to be literally killing the economy as well as killing people on the road.