Chaotic end to Galicia’s tenure

President of the Truckers and Traders Association Horace Amede told Newsday, the late arrival created chaos when truckers were told they could not take their trucks back to Trinidad.

“We were scheduled to leave Port-of-Spain at 2 pm on Thursday afternoon. After a few delays and rescheduling of times, they told us the vessel would leave last night (Thursday) at 9 o’clock from Trinidad, but this never happened, as we didn’t leave until after 5 o’clock this morning (yesterday),” said Amede, who was on board the vessel for the sailing. Amede said crew members advised that the Galicia was heading straight to Spain from Tobago while others said the vessel was due to go back to Port-of-Spain first. “The crew don’t want to take any of the truckers, they said they bought their own diesel (in Trinidad to fuel the boat and was heading off to Spain from Scarborough).

“The truckers decided that we are not going to allow that because we need these trucks from Trinidad to get back home. If they are not allowed to go on that vessel, there won’t even be a sailing of the fast ferries because we would take a stand to shut down Tobago. They (Port Authority) promised us that the final sailing would be at 11 pm (Friday) to bring up whatever cargo and trucks and then they (Superfast Galicia) would leave from here to Spain,” said Amede.

He noted the truckers had valid tickets for the Superfast Galicia’s sailing.

By 2 pm, the local crew working on the Superfast Galicia were told to get off the boat. When the truckers saw this and heard the boat was leaving, presumably to head off to Spain, several of them climbed the ramp to prevent it from leaving without them. One trucker drove his truck onto the ramp in support.

Amede also commented on the announcement by Port Authority chairman Allison Lewis, on Wednesday that two vessels, one of them a barge, have been selected as shortterm replacements for the Superfast Galicia. “We made it plain to them that this would be a total disrespect to Tobago and Tobagonians, we are not putting any cargo on any barge.

The Atlantic Provider can take only about 20 trucks and we have a position where we use about 70 to 100 trucks on a daily basis....since November last year, they were aware of what was going on with the vessel and had an opportunity to provide a vessel.

The Atlantic Provider is on a onemonth rental contract with an option for an additional two to three months “if needed” while the contract for the barge “would be in the vicinity of a month, with an option for another month,” Lewis said. She said the Atlantic Provider will cost Government “in the region of US$14,500 per day” to lease while the Transporter barge will cost between US$8,000 and $10,000 per day. Both vessels are scheduled to sail tomorrow.