Gerry's terminal at Air Freight Unit (AFU) Karachi has expressed its inability to provide required facilitation to the trade, following the reluctance showed by customs department to extend working hours from 8x6 to 24x7. This was expressed by the official of Gerry's Dnata at a meeting with the office-bearers of All Pakistan Customs Agents Association (APCAA) at former office on the other day.
He said that after airport incident, Gerry's Dnata had submitted several applications to the concerned authorities for allocation of additional space for handling of goods, but no application has so far been entertained that led congestion issues at terminal. He said that they could only serve the trade with best services if appropriate space was allocated; adding that Gerry's was ready to extend its working hours from 8x6 to 24x7 but customs was reluctant in this regard, due to inadequate workforce, causing delays in examination and feeding of its reports in the system.
He further said that if customs could able to increase workforce and extend working hours to 24x7 then Gerry's would provide 16x7 services to the trade and rest of 8x7 working hours would be managed for stacking of goods properly. Moreover, he said that presently, Gerry's was providing services to the trade, customs and other agencies along with new cargo handling in 8x6 working hours hence the company was not responsible for delays and mishandling of cargos.
Meanwhile, Arshad Jamal senior vice chairman APCAA said that Gerry's was providing best warehousing services at UAE but in case of Pakistan, the situation is adverse with the best reasons known to the company. Despite paying high warehousing, the trade is facing severe financial shocks due to delays in clearance and delivery of goods at Gerry's DNATA, he maintained.
Later, both the representatives of APCAA and the officials of Gerry's Dnata agreed to conduct joint meetings on the issues of delays with the high officials of CAA and customs in order to reduce the duel time of clearance and cost of doing business.