KAY-MARIE FLETCH­ER

Se­nior Re­porter

kay-marie.fletch­er@guardian.co.tt

Trinidad and To­ba­go Seabridge Truck­ers’ Lim­it­ed is call­ing for greater col­lab­o­ra­tion among all stake­hold­ers re­spon­si­ble for the in­ter-is­land car­go ser­vice.

The ap­peal came as the or­gan­i­sa­tion of­fi­cial­ly launched its op­er­a­tions and out­lined its vi­sion for im­prov­ing seabridge op­er­a­tions.

Dur­ing its launch at the Cruise Ship Com­plex yes­ter­day, pres­i­dent Nicholas Man­swell said the or­gan­i­sa­tion was es­tab­lished to give truck­ers a uni­fied voice and strength­en com­mu­ni­ca­tion be­tween trans­port op­er­a­tors and key stake­hold­ers, in­clud­ing the Port Au­thor­i­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go, the Trinidad and To­ba­go In­ter-Is­land Trans­porta­tion Com­pa­ny, the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly and the Min­istry of Works.

Man­swell stressed that the as­so­ci­a­tion was not seek­ing con­fronta­tion but part­ner­ship, say­ing truck­ers should have a seat at the ta­ble when de­ci­sions af­fect­ing the sea bridge are made.

“Let me make one thing abun­dant­ly vivid: we are not an ad­ver­sary. We are part­ners in na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment. Our ob­jec­tives have nev­er been con­fronta­tion­al. Our ob­jec­tive is col­lab­o­ra­tion,” Man­swell said.

“We be­lieve that when truck­ers are in­clud­ed in de­ci­sions, bet­ter de­ci­sions are made, op­er­a­tions be­come more ef­fi­cient, busi­ness­es pros­per, and ul­ti­mate­ly the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go ben­e­fit.”

He said the or­gan­i­sa­tion’s pri­or­i­ties in­clude im­prov­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tion among stake­hold­ers, en­hanc­ing safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty, up­grad­ing fa­cil­i­ties for truck­ers and in­creas­ing op­er­a­tional ef­fi­cien­cy across the sea bridge.

Man­swell al­so urged truck­ers, freight op­er­a­tors and busi­ness­es that re­ly on the in­ter-is­land car­go ser­vice to join the as­so­ci­a­tion, say­ing its suc­cess will de­pend on the uni­ty and par­tic­i­pa­tion of its mem­bers.