Andre Klynsmith

Cargo Handling

Thirty Minutes at a Three-Minute Gate: Why Gate Throughput Is the Bulk Terminal Number That Matters

The logistics industry has escalated conditions at the Port of Richards Bay to national government, with a formal submission to Transport Minister Barbara Creecy calling for a financial audit, infrastructure rehabilitation and a binding digitalisation roadmap. At the centre of the complaint is a single operational number: trucks are spending around thirty minutes at a gate that should process them in three.

Cargo Handling

20 August 2026 • 4 min read

Terminal performance is usually argued in tonnes handled and vessel turnaround. But for the road operator, the number that decides profitability is how long a truck spends between arriving at the port precinct and being released. At a bulk terminal moving 600 to 800 trucks a day, a manual gate is not an inconvenience -- it is a daily capacity ceiling.

What the Submission Contains

Mike Fitzmaurice of the African Union of Transportation and Logistics Organisations lodged the submission after earlier representations reportedly sat with port leadership for more than six weeks without an integrated response. It raises deteriorating conditions, increasing truck damage, alleged health and safety shortcomings and poor administrative responsiveness, and it sets out a specific list of demands.

Those demands include a full financial audit of access fees collected, urgent grading and paving of staging roads and access routes to offloading points, OHSA-compliant sanitation, a structured recovery plan for freight rail on the corridor, and a binding digitalisation roadmap from Transnet for an integrated vehicle booking and scheduling system. The industry's position on the Gate Zero staging facility -- an access fee of around R157 per truck against what it describes as an unpaved, unmaintained gravel lot -- is contested, and Transnet's response to those specific claims should be sought directly from the operator.

Gate Time Is a Cargo Handling Problem, Not an Admin One

It is tempting to treat gate processing as paperwork sitting outside the cargo handling operation. It is not. Gate throughput determines the rate at which cargo can be presented to the terminal, and a terminal that cannot receive trucks fast enough cannot keep its tipping, stacking and shiploading equipment fed at a steady rate. The queue outside the fence becomes an irregular supply inside it.

The industry's case for an integrated vehicle booking and scheduling system rests on that logic. Slotted arrivals matched to processing capacity spread the day's volume instead of concentrating it, cut queuing on the access roads and the N2, and give operators visibility of expected waiting time before a truck is dispatched. The argument made by the South African Freight and Logistics Association is not that the technology needs inventing -- it is that proven systems already exist and the case for manual handling is no longer supportable.

The Costs That Do Not Appear on the Rate

For the operator, congestion at a bulk terminal produces three separate costs. Idle time consumes diesel and paid driver hours while generating no revenue, and it removes the vehicle from the pool available for the next load. Unsurfaced staging areas cause tyre and suspension damage, shortening component life across every truck serving the port. Access and staging fees sit on top of both.

None of these are individually large. Together they materially change the true cost of a port run, and because they are rarely measured, they are usually absorbed silently into the margin rather than recovered in the rate. Richards Bay is the current example, but the same arithmetic applies at any SADC terminal where a truck waits substantially longer than the process should take.

About the Author
	Andre Klynsmith Entrepreneur & Technology Enthusiast Andre's expertise spans technology, blockchain, transport, and logistics -- with a passion for innovation and driving positive change across industries. info@laaimylorrie.com | laaimylorrie.com