Business owners frustrated over Belize port delays – Love FM Belize News & Music Power

Business owners have expressed their displeasure today at the slow pace of operations at the Belize Ports Limited (PBL). Containers have apparently started to back up at the port since last week as people are having problems exporting and clearing their goods at the port. Several brokers claim they have been having to wait long hours due to limited access to heavy machinery at the port, as well as changes to working hours. This was narrated to us by Delroy Fairweather, Vice President of the Belize Customs Brokers Association.

Delroy Fairweather: “Before COVID, we used to have the ability to get containers out of the port by 6 p.m. at night, which was great because then the normal working hours of course were 8 to 12, 1 to 5, with that extra hour, you could do a lot of things because imports are a daily occurrence. And I say daily occurrence, meaning the ships are not waiting for you to come to work to bring the goods. I mean, the ships are always coming into the country, bringing the goods in, we have to clear customs, we have to get the goods to the customer. So for the last few weeks, I have been hearing about it, I have been looking at it. Now it has come to the point where I said this week, you know we need to work on this problem because we can’t go on like this for another three weeks. It’s ridiculous that truckers are sitting at the port at two or three in the morning just to get in at eight in the morning when the port opens. Nobody can run a business like that. Before, you had maybe an hour or an hour and a half turnaround time to get in, which was not bad. Because, let’s say, a freight company with multiple trucks, let’s say you have five to 10 trucks, in an hour and a half you can at least load more than five containers and then you can move on. Now the problem is when you have to spend that much time loading a container, when you go back to the port to try to get back, you can’t load another container because remember, there are other trucks waiting in line to get in now.”

Our newsroom reached out to Port CEO Arturo Vasquez for an interview, but he declined. Vasquez said only that work hours have been extended since his return and that some issues are beyond the port’s control.