The Customs Area Controller of Tincan Island Port Command, Lagos has said the area has commenced the pilot phase of tracking of movement of containers and cargoes at the TICT Terminal in Lagos.
Comptroller Adekunle Oloyede, Area Controller of Tin Can Customs Command stated this last weekend while fielding questions from journalists on diversion of cargoes leaving the port for Inland Container Depot (ICD).
Adekunle while saying that cargo diversion does not occur at the Command told The Portway Correspondent that the Command has started tracking of cargoes from the TICT Terminal to Bonded warehouses. He maintained that Cargo Tracking is part of the Customs Modernisation Project which is yet to commence and however corrected that the automation of the VIN Valuation with code 846 is only taking place at the Tincan Island Ports as a pilot phase and that it is yet to extend to other Commands.
“Tin Can Island Port was used to pilot the application of the 846 automation so that we can deal with the challenges that comes with it before going national. Very soon it would be extended to other commands” he said
Compt Oloyede however lamented that since the scanners have been provided at the port, terminal operators and freight forwarders are shying away from getting containers scanned because of lack of compliance.
Comptroller Oloyede however revealed that the command has decided to procure mobile scanners that will be placed on the quayside to scan containers dropped from the vessels before they are taken to the stacking areas.
”What we intend to do is to buy more mobile scanners and place them at the quayside.
”As your container is dropped on the truck that will take it to the stacking area, it would be made to go through the mobile scanner at the quayside. This will make compliance level compulsory.
”This is because the mobile machines will be at the quayside where they can be moved from one end of the quayside to the other.
”Even, if I have two mobile machines, they are enough for me. We just place them side by side on the vessel and your truck we move through them.
“And the scanning will not be more than five seconds per container. I can scan up to 400 containers a day, even more, without analysis.
”I will just scan for record purposes but when it is time when the owner of the cargo is ready for the clearance process, that is when the risk management tool will tell me which of those containers I have already scanned and kept their records are going for scanning. This is when we scan and analyse.
”This is what we intend to do very very soon”, he said
