TTP plans increase automation to enhance electronic truck call-up system

Truck Transit Park Limited (TTP), operators of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) electronic truck call- up system is making new moves to improve its operations and increase automation in the process of admitting trucks into the ports.

Speaking on Monday during a media briefing to mark the one-year anniversary of managing the electronic call-up system at the Lagos ports, Managing Director of the TTP, Jama Onwubuariri, said the drive for full automation is targeted at reducing human interference and eliminating all forms of manual processes in the management of movement of trucks.

To achieve this, he said the company would engage more with the seaport terminal operators in order to ease cargo clearance and increase port operational efficiency.

“As we go into the second year of our operations, we see a brighter future. With the active support of our partners, we can do much better than we have done in the last year. Our plan is to increase automation to ensure that less human interference is involved in the process of admitting trucks in the ports.

 “We are hoping to move from a system where you need to show your ticket to someone at the port gate who will direct you to where you need to punch it or where you need to physically come off your truck and punch in your ticket code to be able to gain access to being able to use the equivalent of e- tags that are further tech enabled to get access into the port and into the truck parks without having to use any manual process. This is research we are currently working on.”

“We recently implemented a terminal request procedure that ensures that the port terminals provide us electronically with the number of containers, both export and empties, that they are expecting at their terminals from the shipping lines.

“NPA traffic managers are expected to update the Eto app with that information and that will be the basis for releasing trucks from the various pre-gate to the ports.

“By following this process, we can match what the port terminals are expecting and what they can process with the number of trucks that are sent to the streets,” he said.

Speaking on the successes recorded by the Eto application in the last one year, Onwubuariri, said with active support from the NPA, the application has succeeded in bringing sanity on the Lagos ports access roads and reducing the spate of extortions along the corridor.

According to him, before the intervention of TTP, truckers spend an average of two to three weeks to access the port but that has been reduced to 90 hours.

He said the initiative has also led to a reduction in cargo haulage cost adding that about 83, 581 trucks have so far been registered under the port entry and exit register.

“In terms of our operation statistics, from February 27 2021 till date, we have about 9, 563 registered users on the platform. We have processed about 592, 750 trucks and we have about 83,531 registered trucks on the platform and we have about 55 approved parks on the platform.

“In terms of throughput efficiency, we have been able to achieve a reduction of up to about 90 hours. Before now it used to be between two to three weeks before the trucks could get into the port but now that has reduced.

“In terms of the cost of moving cargo, before now it used to be extremely very high but that has been reduced to an average of about 65 percent within the last 12 months,” he said.

On challenges hindering the effectiveness of Eto in traffic management, the company said the indiscriminate parking of trucks along the access roads searching for Terminal Delivery Order (TDOs) has been a major challenge creating traffic congestion on the road.

The MD, however, said the firm is working with the NPA to ensure that recalcitrant truck drivers are sanctioned for failing to comply with laid down procedures.

He added that the firm has also sought the intervention of the Lagos State government and the Minister of Transport for the removal of all illegal checkpoints along the Lagos ports access road.

Chairman, Eto Implementation Committee of NPA, Ayo Durowaye, in his remarks said the partnership between NPA and TTP has witnessed a lot of progress but noted that lots more still needs to be done to reach their desired goal.

He sought clarification on the complaints by truckers on the alleged N21,000 being charged on the Eto app to which the MD explained that the Eto system only charges the sum of N10, 000 with a VAT of N750 which goes to the government’s coffers.

He noted that while the company is not averse to solutions that can help ease the traffic problem along the ports access roads, he is confident that the Eto app remains a better choice to ease traffic and restore sanity along the Lagos ports access roads.

Highlight of the event was the unveiling of the company’s new logo.