Johannesburg - A two-day-old traffic jam blocking the Bayhead Road entrance to Durban Harbour has prevented fuel tankers from getting in or out to collect and then deliver fuel to service stations in the greater Durban area.
Kevin Martin, an ex-chairman for the Harbour Carriers Association, said yesterday that the problem lay in a Transnet labour dispute that was affecting pier one and two.
Wind was compounding the problem yesterday as the cranes could not work under these conditions.
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Pier one and two serviced large volumes of vehicles, with about 4 000 gate moves a day, he said. Although the government had carried out infrastructure upgrades to the Bayhead Road entrance, Martin said blockages still occurred once a week as the road could not cope with the combined container truck traffic to the harbour and the petrol tank traffic to the Island View depot.
He said Transnet had been working with labour to resolve the issue. Business Report did not manage to get hold of Transnet by the time of going to print.
Service stations are reported to be drying up. BP, Shell and Total fuel storage tanks in the Island View depot are also said to be running low due to the last-minute rush by motorists to buy fuel before the new price hikes.
Reggie Sibiya, the chief executive of the Fuel Retailers Association, said oil companies stood to lose millions of rands if the matter was not solved quickly.
“I have been told that BP alone has lost about R20 million already in the last 24 hours,” he said yesterday.
This would affect the Durban Gauteng fuel pipeline.
“We don’t know the real problem yet, but there are reports of a go-slow by Transnet workers being the cause.
“Such a go-slow must be resolved as a matter of urgency for the good of the province and its economy. We hope the authorities will intervene.”
The effects of the traffic foul-up will be severe if it lasts until the weekend.
A BP employee who is not permitted to speak to the media confirmed that their trucks had been prevented from getting into the harbour.
Attempts to get Shell and Total to comment were unsuccessful.
Gavin Kelly, a spokesman for the Road Freight Association, said yesterday that this had yet to affect its members.
It is also reported that the Durban Metro police failed to resolve the issue as the truck drivers refused to move.
Sibiya said the effects of the go-slow would be severe if it lasted until the weekend.
BUSINESS REPORT