Customs brokers and hauliers are expected to voluntarily stop work today in advance of a three-day trucking strike in Manila, as a year-long standoff on carriers failing to remove their empties reaches its limit – Hapag-Lloyd having suspended bookings amid the chaos.
Warning the protest could “last a week”, Reynaldo Soliman, chair of the Practicing Customs Brokers and Port Truckers Alliance, urged brokers not to secure gate passes, book trucks, or release shipments, until carriers reduced the number of empties at Manila.
“Even though we want to ship, we cannot move,” Mr Soliman told local reporters, with the number of empties scattered around terminals, hauliers yards, and waiting on flatbeds to be removed, measured in the thousands with just 10% of volumes moving out of Manila’s ports.
In a letter seen by Лодстар, Bureau of Customs commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno told Port of Manila it needed to take measures to address the worsening empties backlog, suggesting boxes that had been waiting for more than 10 days be moved offsite.
“Increasing yard utilisation levels at the Manila International Container Port and the port of Manila continue to adversely affect the efficient movement of cargo and the overall flow of port operations,” he wrote. “Delays in the release and withdrawal of laden containers further contribute to congestion and reduce available terminal capacity, resulting in a domino effect on port operations and cargo flow.”
For hauliers, the issue is even more acute, with the Confederation of Truckers Association of the Philippines (CTAP) noting without space for empties, trucks were left “literally holding the mess”, which CTAP president Mary Zapata noted meant a truck could not make another trip.
Those issues are being compounded by the fact they are occurring alongside a spike in fuels costs and a rise in unregulated destination charges and policies, including truck bans making it harder to recruit drivers.
“We are not making any money, and the problem has become very serious. In my personal assessment, the trucking industry is in an even worse situation now than it was during the pandemic,” said Ms Zapata. “Almost all government offices concerned with transportation are already aware of these issues. We have raised them, and while they listen to us, we still have not seen any solution.”
If brokers and hauliers see carriers as being at fault, Hapag-Lloyd has responded with the news that it would not accept any bookings “to Manila, Batangas, and Subic Bay across all origins and tradelanes”, as a consequence of the chaos.
Having begun last week, the German carrier said the suspension on bookings would “remain in place through 31 December”, unless the situation dramatically changed.
Addressing the Filippino public, Mr Soliman said the failure of carriers to either remove the boxes or provide suitable yard space – instead, expecting someone else to do that – was directly causing the country’s rising food prices.
Sergio Ortiz-Luis, president of the Philippine Exporters Confederation, said he did not expect the protest to impact urgent shipments, but warned that, even without the planned work stoppage, there would likely be delays stemming from the issues the protest was intended to highlight.
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