CEBU CITY –– To ease traffic congestion in the northern highways of Cebu, the releasing and pulling out of cargoes from the Cebu International Port (CIP) has been moved to night-time starting Jan. 15.
In the executive order signed on Jan. 12 by Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, the movement of goods and cargoes at CIP would be carried out from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. to alleviate daytime traffic.
A truck ban in the northern municipalities of Consolacion and Liloan has been implemented from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
On Jan. 15, Garcia released another executive order allowing the release and pull out of cargoes intended for transfer to domestic base ports and other container yards located within the port zone area of the CIP “at any time of the day.”
Garcia urged the truckers to deliver their cargoes within the scheduled pull-out time to reduce traffic during the day.
“The traffic congestion that is happening during the daytime is affecting everyone. For those that are in private vehicles going to their work or their offices, they spend more time on the road than in the office itself because they have to leave early or else they would be late,” she said.
She stressed that delays in cargo delivery would also affect businesses.
Trailer trucks and wing vans plying the roads going to and from the CIP, located in Cebu City’s reclamation area, were seen as one of the causes of heavy traffic in the north, where many storage houses are located.
In a report, PortCalls Asia, a news and data provider for cargo transport and logistic professionals, said port stakeholders expect delays, an increase in trucking rates, and port congestion once the truck ban and the new container pullout schedule are enforced.
Rami Hourani, president of the Philippine Exporters Confederation, told PortCalls Asia he hoped to work with Garcia to carve out exemptions for exporters to preserve their competitiveness.
“This (truck ban and the new container pullout schedule) could lead to delays in the procurement of containers and late shipments,” he said.
Hourani said the new schedule would affect exporters because they would be forced to allocate more man-hours to non-daytime work that could lead to increased cost due to night-shift differential and overtime pay.