BRAMPTON, Ont. — Problems persist at CN’s Brampton Intermodal Yard, according to the Canadian International Freight Forwarders Association (CIFFA).

After holding another meeting with shipping lines and CN representatives, CIFFA reported today there are several issues of concern.

Chief among these was the fact that average dwell (storage) days at the terminal had increased to close to 4.5 days for the five-day working week of October 6-12.

"How is it possible that the average ‘dwell time’ of a container is still in excess of 4 days? In all objectivity, a container ought to be cleared and ‘out of the yard between 24 – 48 hours! What and where is the hold up?" comments CIFFA’s George Kuhn in his e-mail bulletin to members.

He adds that there are still problems with the reservation system and that there have been attempts to hack into CN’s computer system, override it and convert ‘non-numbered export slots’ to imports once the driver was in the yard.

"Naturally, such attempts corrupt the reservation system and make it more onerous for CN to service everybody equally and fairly," Kuhn says.

Another area of concern is weekend retrievals, which apprarently have again shrunk to a minimum number of about 74 containers between Saturday and Sunday!

Also, average turn around time had increased earlier in the week of Oct. 6-12 to close to 60 minutes but then fell back to a more acceptable level of about 40 minutes.

"There are still a plethora of problems and solutions that must be found to ensure an uninterrupted supply chain and a more thorough update will come forth soon," Kuhn said.