Cargo importers will be penalised if they fail to comply with a raft of new regulations brought in by the Corporation of Hamilton to tackle congestion at the docks.

The crackdown calls on importers to remove all over-sized cargo within a time limit of five-days, or the goods will be removed for them at a price.

But one industry insider said the new policy was unrealistic in expecting importers to comply within five days because “there are simply not enough trucks on the Island”.

The man, who asked not to be named, also blasted the Corporation for not having enlarged the docks area years ago in an attempt to deal with the congestion problem proactively.

“Just about every other country has added space on to their docks,” the man said. “I don't see why they couldn't expand it out into the harbour. There's so much space out there.”

Bermuda Forwarders operations manager Hal Kempe agreed that there was a lack of space at the docks, and said he thought the Corporation were “perfectly within their rights” to impose the new restrictions.

He blamed the congestion problem partly on the fact that Stevedoring Services does not have enough equipment, such as toploaders, which would allow trucks to pick up their cargo in a timely fashion.

“Sometimes we can have up to 25 trucks waiting in line at once. Its a bottleneck. At the best of times, maybe we can get about seven containers off the docks. And thats on a good day.”

Corporation Secretary Roger Sherratt told The Royal Gazette yesterday that because of “severe congestion problems”, importers will be expected remove all over-sized cargo within a five-day time limit. If they do not, he said, they will be stopped from landing any more cargo and the offending goods will also be removed by the Corporation, with the cost of transportation and storage being passed on to the importer.

Mr. Sherratt warned that the policy, which will be implemented on July 22, might be followed up by measures to stop over-sized cargo being left on the docks for any period of time should importers fail to meet the new restrictions.

He said: “In several cases the importers have left them on the docks for up to two weeks for no other apparent reason than they have nowhere on their construction sites to store them.

“This is the busiest time of year in the run up to Cup Match and this is seriously impairing our ability to operate the docks properly and efficiently.”

He said the problem was made worse by the fact that many individuals who import items do not pick them up immediately after they have arrived on the container ship.

He said the Corporation was planning to increase dock storage fees in an effort to deter this and warned that, if the situation does not improve, all stripping of cargo from containers will be moved to another location outside the docks complex.

“If you're planning to buy goods abraod and have them shipped back to the Island, please make sure you have the goods properly labelled. Also make sure that you label the goods properly with your telephone numbers and prepare the paperwork well in advance so that it doesn't take too long to come and collect them.”

He added that people would no longer be allowed to leave their boat cradles on the docks after taking their boats off the container ships and putting them straight into the water.

“We end up with dozens of these cradles abandoned on the docks, taking up valuable storage space.”