Feb 02, 2010
Truckers Block Highway In Mato Grosso Protesting Slow Unloading At Rail Terminal
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
It was only a matter of time before the huge soybean crop in Mato Grosso would run into the reality of the lack of infrastructure needed to efficiently move such a large crop. Well, we didn't have to wait very long because the first protest occurred late last week.
At one of the two rail terminals of the Ferronorte Railroad in southeastern Mato Grosso, truck drivers became so upset about the slow pace of unloading that blocked the highway in protest. Drivers were complaining that some had to wait three days to unload their cargo without the benefit of basic sanitation, food, or other necessities. They expressed their frustration by blocking the only highway that leads to the terminal for 15 hours.
As a result, enormous lines of trucks quickly developed which could be visible for miles. The federal police managed to eventually open the highway, but the truck drivers had already made their point. In hastily called meeting in the state capital of Cuiaba between the company that operates the terminals and the various trucker organizations, an agreement was worked out that only 700 trucks per day would be allowed to proceed to the terminal.
Similar problems occurred at the same terminal for each of the last several years, yet little improvements have been made in the handling capacity at the terminal. Instead, they have decided to limit the amount of trucks allowed to unload.
The situation at Ferronorte is not nearly as bad as what used to happen at the Port of Paranagua in southeastern Brazil. During the peak of the harvest season, legendary lines of trucks waiting to unload would stretch for up to 100 kilometers. The way they solved the problem was to institute series of staging points in the interior of Parana where the trucks had to wait until they were authorized to proceed to the port. If a truck arrived at the port without the prior authorization, it would not be unloaded. This solved the problem of long lines, but it didn't improve the efficiency of the transportation system.