Shas­tri Boodan

In­land con­tain­er ship­ping rates are ex­pect­ed to in­crease by as much as 20 per cent be­fore the end of the year.

Cur­tis Seep­er­sad, pres­i­dent of the As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T Hauliers (ATTH) told Guardian Me­dia that no date has yet been fi­nalised for the in­crease. Seep­er­sad said op­er­a­tional costs and the price of fu­el has left ATTH 90-plus mem­bers with no al­ter­na­tive. He said “ Sub­se­quent to our Spe­cial Mem­bers’ Meet­ing, a de­ci­sion was tak­en to im­ple­ment a rate in­crease for ground trans­porta­tion con­tain­er haulage. This re­vi­sion of rates is trig­gered by con­sis­tent in­creas­es in diesel prices over the past six (6) years from a 2016 rate of $1.50 per litre to $4.41 per litre in 2022. An in­crease of 194 per­cent. In the past the As­so­ci­a­tion has lob­bied amongst our mem­bers to main­tain our 2014 rates against the back­drop of the un­prece­dent­ed world pan­dem­ic, glob­al sup­ply chain is­sues, in­creas­es in fu­el prices, con­tain­er short­ages, port in­ef­fi­cien­cies, floods, and de­te­ri­o­rat­ing road net­works. Re­gret­tably, with the lat­est, sub­stan­tial diesel price in­crease, and our ma­jor con­sum­ables such as tires, parts oils, and lu­bri­cants we are no longer able to main­tain these rates.

He added, “As a Hauliers’ As­so­ci­a­tion, we recog­nise our sig­nif­i­cant role as part of the sup­ply chain net­work and will re­main com­mit­ted to en­hanc­ing the ca­pa­bil­i­ties and com­pe­ten­cies of our mem­bers serv­ing var­i­ous com­mu­ni­ties.” Seep­er­sad said the gov­ern­ment can as­sist with keep­ing costs down by of­fer­ing tax in­cen­tives to ATTH mem­bers such as tax breaks on ve­hi­cles, tires and parts. He said con­sum­ables are ris­ing dai­ly and the cost alone of putting fu­el in one truck can be as much as $4000 a month. The ris­ing cost of parts and tires in­creased in the two years when ship­ping rates went from around $70,000 in 2020 to $140,000 for goods from Chi­na dur­ing the pe­ri­od when there was a short­age of con­tain­ers.

One haulage op­er­a­tor who wished not to be iden­ti­fied said the last time the as­so­ci­a­tion com­plained about the de­mer­it sys­tem they were vic­timised by the Li­cens­ing Au­thor­i­ty.

“They set up strate­gic road­blocks to pre­vent us from en­ter­ing the ports along Wright­son Road and Rivulet Road. When we com­plain the au­thor­i­ties set out on a path of vic­tim­i­sa­tion. I am won­der­ing what their next move is.”

Richie Sookhai, Pres­i­dent of the Ch­agua­nas Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce, said this will cause an over­all in­crease in prices “The ATTH in­tent to in­crease is un­der­stand­able, not on­ly be­cause of fu­el but be­cause of main­te­nance and glob­al in­creas­es. See­ing that they haven’t in­creased since 2014 I can un­der­stand the need but see­ing the state of the econ­o­my they should re­think the rates of the in­crease. We can see that the gov­ern­ment was not mak­ing cuts any­where when it comes to keep­ing prices down. We have sug­gest­ed cap­ping prices in the past and the gov­ern­ment is not go­ing to re­duce tax­es on any com­mod­i­ty. Once this in­crease in haulage rates takes place prices will go up.”

Mukesh Ram­s­ingh, pres­i­dent of the Cou­va Point Lisas Cham­ber of Com­merce, said the in­crease of haulage rate would send up the costs of all goods.

He said, “The ATTH should not go as high as 20 per cent be­cause of the state of the econ­o­my. I am call­ing on the ATTH to meet with all busi­ness cham­bers and the min­is­ter be­fore any rate in­crease takes place.”