KUCHING, April 23: Tay Motors (M) Sdn Bhd director Aaron Tay Kok Tung is urging the Kuching Port Authority (KPA) to bear the costs of Kuching Port Emergency Congestion Surcharge following a computer system failure at their Senari Port.
As far as his motorcycle shop is concerned, he said there are currently many containers shipped from Peninsular Malaysia that cannot be taken out of the cargo ships due to the failure of the computer system.
“Not only do they have to face the loss for the delayed delivery to their customers, but additional charges are also now being levied.
“If import and export merchants are requested for these extra charges, these charges will inevitably passed on to the goods and consumers would have to pay for it,” he said.
Thus, he expressed hopes that KPA would negotiate with the shipping companies and bear the extra port congestion charges to avoid such burdens on merchants or the end consumers.
Tay, who is also Kuching Chung Hua Primary Schools (CHPS) Board of Management representative, said KPA ought to upgrade their computer system facilities especially the backup facilities in case of emergencies.
“They (KPA) would need to improve the deficiencies of hardware facilities as well, including insufficient or malfunctioning boom cranes and lack of manpower operation, so as to speed up the movement of the containers in and out of the port in order to reduce the loss of business,” he added. — DayakDaily
