Port of Felixstowe still not up to speed

Quayside volumes last week totaled 66,000 TEUs and productivity was 80 percent of pre-go-live levels of its new terminal operating system.    The Port of Felixstowe said Tuesday it is continuing to work to improve productivity levels, which dropped after the port implemented its new terminal operating system, nGen, last month.
   Despite improvements, the port said there is still more work to do.
   Quayside volumes last week totaled 66,000 TEUs and productivity was 80 percent of pre-go-live levels.
   Nearly 5,000 containers were loaded to rail and more than 21,000 road haulers were serviced, the port said, adding that the average hauler turnaround time stabilized at 46 minutes.
   However, the port said, “Vessel and rail loading performance remain below the targets we need to achieve. We are working to reduce further the number of rail misses and we recognize that performance in all areas is not good enough.”   
   Commenting on delays from the new terminal operating system, Felixstowe Port Users Association Chairman Jason Flowers previously said, “If there is a plus point to this, after having the nGen system explained to us and how it works differently to their former system NAVIS and Charts, I do believe that, once the errors have been fixed, the system should provide a better platform for the port to build on and improve throughput of certain containers through the port.”
   Meanwhile, on Saturday, a new area of empty storage will be opened at the port behind berths 8 and 9. The new yard will provide capacity for an additional 4,200 TEUs of empty storage and will facilitate faster loading of empties to outbound vessels, the port said.
   The Port of Felixstowe, which touts itself as Britain’s biggest and busiest container port, is called by 26 fully cellular container services connecting it to regions outside Britain, 21 of which sail to regions outside North Europe, according to BlueWater Reporting’s Port Dashboard tool.