LPC says customer complaints at port being addressed

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Lagos Port Complex, has said that all hands are on deck to address customer complaints at the port, including cargo delay and arbitrary charges.

Nasir Anas Mohammed, the Lagos Port manager, who spoke to journalists at an event to mark this year’s Customer Service Week, an annual event celebrated worldwide in the first week of October, said those complaints were issues that all stakeholders – including shippers, agents, terminal operators, as well as government agencies – were determined to tackle in order to ensure more efficient port operations.

“Those complaints have been on and all hands have been on deck to tackle them. These are issues that stakeholders as a whole are determined to tackle, with everybody doing his or her own part, because when you analyse the challenge, everybody has a role,” he said. Mohammed also disclosed that LPC was looking beyond just observing the event on an annual basis, but would go beyond that to see to the issue of adding value to the community during the event, saying, “We are expected to identify with the customers, celebrate with the customer, and also identify with the community.”

The Apapa Local Government, he said, was very disposed to the arrangement, going by the encouragement given to LPC so far in this regard, adding that it was based on this fact that they were partnering to observe this year’s event.

On the effort to sanitise the port and rid it of rickety trucks which usually break down and cause gridlock along the port access roads, Mohammed said they were planning on engaging some private partners who would bring in brand new trucks.

“They will operate a consolidated truck management system whereby only these new trucks will have access to the ports. This will also bring about peace of mind on the part of shippers concerning their cargoes. This will also erase the issue of traffic bottlenecks that usually arise due to bad and old trucks coming into the ports,” he explained.

“Our safety department has been discussing with the truck drivers on the minimum safety standard of the type of trucks that should come into the ports. We want to make them see that it is equally for their own good.”

On when the new trucks would become operational, the Lagos Port manager projected the next one year. “We are trying to ensure that the various truck associations come together and consolidate to form one or two or three holding companies so that they can source these vehicles that are being provided by the private companies, because when they consolidate, it will be easier for them to get loans or support from other agencies of government, which will help them to dispose the rickety and old trucks they are currently using,” he said.