New methods are being tried on Bermuda?s docks to relieve overcrowding after Canadian consultants visited recently.

Stevedoring Services is now stacking empties four high by five deep in one spot rather than having them scattered around, following suggestions from experts from Halifax.

After a ship has been unloaded, it moves down to the empties which are then put on board after the mobile cranes have moved alongside.

Mr. Henry Hayward said: ?We save space and ultimately we hope we save time. We don?t have additional people or additional machines moving stuff back and forth.?

This approach will be tried with all three regular ships.

Block stowing of empty containers mean full ones can be spread out, said Acting CEO Michael Lohan, who explained that when a truck turned up it might mean moving 15 containers to get at one placed into the middle of a stack.

He said it was pot luck whether a container was easily accessible, leading to some truckers getting relatively quick service and others waiting for hours while containers were shifted around.

?We get complaints from truckers (that) they are waiting for two hours, but we are doing nine or ten containers an hour.?

Advance booking for container collection would also speed matters said Mr. Lohan, who suggested such a system more than two decades ago.

?We try to get the major importers to pick up by appointment.?

But Stevedoring Services seems reluctant to force importers to abide by a booking system.

Mr. Lohan said such a system had been implemented in many parts of the world.

?There are penalties attached to it. If you don?t arrive on time, you go to the back of the queue.?

But he said of the Bermuda situation: ?There are many links in the chain. Truck drivers are contracted to pick up boxes.

?You cannot dictate. The importer is the one who decides which he needs.?

He said he did not know if truckers would let one of their colleagues ?jump the queue? because they had booked an appointment.

?I am not sure that is the role of Stevedoring Services, we are contracted to discharge and load ships and make cargo available. We don?t dictate hours.

?It would be futile to implement a system that was unacceptable.?

Mr. Hayward said a meeting with importers and truckers was needed to discuss the situation as minds were now concentrated on the problems at the docks.

?We have talked about a lot of other problems, this is one of many problems.?

Docks managers are also set to invest in hand-held mini computers to keep a better track on the whereabouts of containers.

Mr. Lohan said around $10-15,000 would be spent on a trial to asses their worth.

Stevedoring Services is counting the days until the stripping sheds are torn down.

Hamilton mayor Lawson Mapp has given a deadline of December next year for Number Eight Shed, which along with loading areas alongside occupies 25,000 square feet while the 18,000 square foot Number Seven Shed is also for the chop. A new location has yet to be found.

In these sheds containers shared between importers are unloaded and items stored.

Mr. Lohan said some importers left their goods in the shed for a year without bothering to pick them up.

Boxes sometimes arrived without paperwork leading to sorting problems. Some containers can have up to 600 separate items.

Precious space was also eaten up with the erection of the new sewage treatment plant a few years ago said Mr. Hayward.

The Corporation brought in a limit of 750 containers recently after fears for the safety of workers who were put in danger by overcrowding. However Mr. Hayward said demand had fallen away after Cup Match.