Some of these ideas have been floated already but seem to have been lost and may need new or added impetus . To reduce roadway congestion, shipping, brokerage and trucking incentives and disincentives in the pick-up or delivery of shipments at ports can be set up, targeting particularly weekdays during school terms, Monday through Friday.
The plan would encompass all ports, including Piarco, and energy industry service facilities. Tax credits can be earned for clearing shipments between 8.30 pm and 3.30 am. Verification and accounting along the lines of, say, a TD4 method would be part and parcel of the customs/duties process at ports and basic management at service facilities. Clearly, nighttime port business and jobs would become a norm. It would also mean the elevation and expansion of security practice and methodology and general oversight.
Similarly, port tolls, or immediate cash fees, can be charged those clearing shipments during the hours of 9.30 am to 2.30 pm. In addition, shipments to or from ports can be banned altogether between 5 am and 8.30 am and 2.30 pm and 7 pm. Exceptions to the ban can be allowed for emergency and exigency goods (to and from port) and goods already in documented transit from port.
E Galy
Port-of-Spain