Off-dock yard expands truck fleet to speed up empties repositioning

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The RILbest
The RILbest
The RILBEST off-dock facility in Cavite started operations in October 2014 in response to the need for more facilities to store empty containers in the wake of the Manila truck ban.

RILBEST Container Yard, Inc., which operates an off-dock facility in Cavite, has increased its truck fleet to help foreign shipping lines reposition empty containers faster in order to meet the 90-day dwell time deadline set by the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

In a statement sent to PortCalls, RIL Group of Companies chairman Roosevelt Lasac said RILBEST has a “current fleet of 250 trucks and continuously expanding to support the growing demand of the industry.”

In January this year, BOC issued Customs Administrative Order (CAO) No. 01-2015 which cuts to 90 days from the previous 150 days the period allowed for empty containers to stay in the country before being saddled with duties and taxes.

RILBEST Container Yard started off-dock operations in October last year due to the need for more of these facilities to store empty containers in the wake of the Manila truck ban that triggered congestion in the port of Manila.

With the limited window for trucks to ply the roads and the congestion, many empty boxes were stuck in container yards, eventually eating up all the capacity in Manila-based yards. This led to some container yards outside Metro Manila being opened, including RILBEST.

Lasac said the container yard located in Binacayan, Kawit, Cavite is “equipped with a yard management system and practices organized storage planning since the first day of its operations, which is visually evident when you pass by Cavitex (Cavite Expressway) road.”

“The organized stowing plan per client helps us locate and pull out containers, maintaining our commitment of quick turnaround of trucks,” Lasac noted.

Clients are given specific areas in which to store their empties to make it easier for RILBEST to pull out containers when needed.

RILBEST maintains a positive outlook for the year, and expects to sign up three more shipping lines within the month and add 1,500 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) to the existing inventory.

An area of about 2,000 square meters in the 4.5-hectare facility is currently being used by two shipping lines. The container yard has a static capacity of 8,000 TEUs. It has two mobile telescopic cranes and a truck holding area, as well as a fleet of trucks and chassis.

RILBEST Container Yard is part of the RIL Group of Companies, engaged in other logistics businesses such as RIL Transport Services, Essential Freight Solutions, Bygrace Hauling Corp., and D’Redeemers Sight Corp. It also operates a chassis lending company, RILBROS Movers, Co., and a school for containerized truck driving, the Articulated Training and Driving School, Inc.—Roumina Pablo