In the morning of 23rd September 2009, in the Meeting Hall, the SNP’s Deputy General Director Ngo Minh Thuan presided at the Conference on the improvement of the services relating to the empty containers between Saigon Newport Company and the Shipping Lines/ Agents, customers. The main agenda of the Conference is the SNP’s report about the actual situation of the management of empty containers, M & R, PTI, the opinions and suggestions of the participants exchanged at the Conference and the solutions to enhance the service quality in the time to come. There are more than one hundred attenders at the conference. The opinions and proposals discussed at the Conference as well as the ones sent to SNP prior to the Conference focused on the criteria of the inspecting and surveying the empty containers at gates, at the shipside and upon the return of the empty containers, the remarks about container status in the EIR and the update into the system, the classification of the empty containers and observing the FI-FO rules to minimise the long staying of the storage of empty containers, the schedule of the repair, maintenance & cleaning and the updated information in the report to the Shipping lines about the number and quality of the empty containers at CY and depots, the arrangement for the storage of the empty containers, especially for the reefer empty containers and PTI in the peak season, the information exchange and the co-ordination between the shipping lines/agents with the relating departments of SNP and the internal cooperation on the empty containers. There were 12 subjects concluded at the Conference by the Deputy General Director targeting at enhancing the quality of the services relating to empty dry and reefer containers in the coming times. To improve the delivery and receipt of the containers, all the concerning procedures and regulations shall be revised and amended, the training course shall be organized to deepen and professionalize the knowledge and awareness of the staff involved in the work, the scientific classification and arrangement of the empty containers on the CYs and at the depots shall be carried out, strict observance of the FI-FO rules in the management of the empty container storage. To speed up the M & R and cleaning process for empty containers, Mr. Thuan instructed to make the arrangement of assigning the staff on duty 24 hours/day at the gates of Tan Cang, Cat Lai and Depots to carry out the survey, estimation and cleaning for all the empty containers as soon as they come to the port and before stacking on the CYs. The division to be in main charge of sending the cost estimation, exchanging information with the shipping lines and supervising the M & R process shall be regulated. The regulation on the co-ordination among the relating departments of the port shall be more reasonable and consentaneous. The re-arrangement of the areas for the storage of the empty containers shall include the usage of Depot 09 ( inside cat Lai port) and the new Depots on the Sunnimex land (8.5 hectares opposite Cat Lai port), enlargement of the area for the empty reefer storage, repair and PTI inside cat Lai port. The dedicate areas for M & R shall be allocated inside the CYs storing the empty containers. SNP shall make the best effort so that the empty storage occupancy shall not exceed 85%. The other measures was also stressed as the focus for the improvement of the service quality for empty containers like the investment into the new equipment serving the lifting on/off and transporting the empty containers, increasing the laborers, upgrading the CYs and the frames of the reefer plugs to raise up the capacity, deploying the connectivity of the IT system to the depots in Sunimex. Especially, to promote the agreement of SNP & the shipping lines on M & R issues, SNP shall sign the M & R contracts with the shipping lines/agents with the detailed stipulations of the responsibilities and rights of each Party and SNP’s commitment on the service quality. The regulation on the award and penalty relating to the implementation of solution to improve the service quality and more reasonable policy of the service tariff shall also be applicable.
The Conference on the improvement of the services relating to the empty containers has reflected the willingness of SNP in listening to the customers’ opinions and suggestions, sharing their difficulties and determination in enhancing the service quality to meet the expectation of the shipping lines/ agents and customers.
