CILT-Ghana commends government over paperless port

The President of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT)-Ghana, Mr. Ebo Hammond, has commended government for implementing the Paperless Port Transaction system which has already taken off on September 1, 2017.

He also lauded government efforts in removing customs barriers in the country and ensure mandatory joint inspections and a paperless port system.

According to him, these steps taken by government will build the Ghanaian economy and enhance greater transparency at the country’s ports of entry.

He however called for more effective education and sensitization for the cooperation of all stakeholders to ensure port efficiency.

Speaking in an interview at the sideline of the 2nd Transport and Fleet Management Workshop in Accra on Tuesday, Ebo Hammond said the CILT-Ghana had presented proposals into the implementation of the paperless port system, the removal of custom barriers to the Ministries of Transport and Finance, hence the smooth take off of these policies is a manifestation of the fact that government is listening to them as a player in the logistics and transport industry.

According to him vehicle fleet management is a significant and necessary asset in every organization and certainly, making the transport fleet more effective and efficient is not an easy assignment hence it needs competent personnel to man that area of any given organization.

He explained that fleet management is a function which allows companies which rely on transportation in business to remove or minimize the risks associated with vehicle investment, improving efficiency, productivity and reducing their overall transportation and staff costs.

He said, fleet management helps organizations to keep good drivers through improved driver visibility and by reducing the amount of manual work that their drivers have to do and as well, increases safe driving and efficiencies.

Mr. Ebo Hammond also averred that worldwide market of vehicle tracking is constantly growing since vehicle or fleet management allows companies to manage their fleet during all the transportation process.

“These days fleet services are designed in order to minimize vehicle investment risks, reduce transportation and staff costs, improve transport efficiency and increase productivity. These results he said.

On his part, Mr. Mark Amoamah, Vice President in Charge of Education and Professional Management of CILT-Ghana, also enumerated that monitoring of vehicle fleet is very important to the growth of an organization and that monitoring or review of fleet management must be done in a cost effective manner to shape the future growth of the organization.

According to Mark Amoamah fleet managers must be skilled enough to be able to monitor the progress, mistakes, and failures of their fleets so as to be able to take decisions that will be in the best interest of the company.

He mentioned that fleet managers need to take into account the SMART Indicators which are criteria originally proposed as a management tool for project and program managers to set goals and objectives and have been well accepted in the field of monitoring and evaluation.

According to him many development agencies and funds support the use of SMART principles as a way to manage M&E, and have made this explicit within their institutional evaluation policies or guidelines.

He also explained that the benefits of fleet management systems to businesses can occur through its integration; saving money on fuel, optimizing productivity through efficient time management software, improving customer service quality and increasing employees’ satisfaction are some of the benefits of fleet management a company may enjoy when implementing the system to its business.

He said: “Fleet management improves productivity by saving time not only to drivers or mechanics, but also to administrators and managers.

One of the greatest advantages of fleet management is the possibility of reducing costs through various functionalities. The fuel information, together with an efficient route planning, leads to optimizing the fuel consumption and the excessive idle time costs.”