After the lifting of Manila’s truck ban over the weekend, truckers agreed on a route that they will operate on to and from the port area.
In a meeting on September 15, the Confederation of Truckers Association of the Philippines (CTAP), Alliance of Concerned Truck Owners and Organizations, Integrated North Harbor Truckers Association and Aduana Business Club, Inc. agreed on the following routing:
Northbound and southbound:
- Roxas Boulevard – one lane
- Burgos St to 25th – two lanes
- 25th to Anda – two lanes (right lane for South Harbor, center lane for Manila International Container Terminal, North Harbor)
Fly over Del Pan – two lanes, no queuing allowed (trucks to enter on 2nd Street) - Marala Bridge – two lanes C3 Road 10 two lanes between Moriones & Pacheco (C3 bound) one lane–truck routes
- C3 Road and Road 10 – two lanes for both
- Between Moriones and Pacheco Streets – one lane
CTAP director Alberto Suansing told PortCalls in a phone interview that Task Force Pantalan, convened by the government to address port congestion, is on board the scheme.
Suansing hopes the routing system will effectively decongest Manila ports, but noted there is still the problem of empty container returns, which leads to the slow turnaround of trucks, to deal with.
He added that the government targets to pull out via trucks 7,000 containers a day from Manila ports to reduce the backlog but so far, only 5,000 containers are being released per day due to the slow truck turnaround.
It should be noted that although Manila’s truck ban has been lifted, the truck ban adopted by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) remains in place.
Under the MMDA modified uniform truck ban, cargo trucks and heavy vehicles with a gross capacity weight of more than 4,500 kilograms are prohibited from plying Metro Manila roads from 6am to 10am and 5pm to 10pm every day except Sundays and holidays.
A total truck ban on EDSA from Magallanes Village in Makati to North Avenue in Quezon City is still implemented.
To ease port congestion that resulted from the Manila truck ban, the Metro Manila Council (MMC) under resolution No. 92-2014 opened a 24-hour truck route in Metro Manila until December 10. The resolution suspends the truck ban on the following routes in Metro Manila from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. every day except Fridays.
Via Roxas Boulevard:
- From Port Area to Cavitex (southbound)
- From Pier to Road 10, then straight to Roxas Boulevard, then to Cavitex
- From Port Area to SLEX
- From Pier to Road 10, then A. Bonifacio Avenue, straight to Roxas Boulevard, then left to Quirino, and straight to Osmena Highway and to SLEX
- From SLEX/Cavitex to Port Area (northbound)
- From Cavitex to Roxas Boulevard and then to Port Area
- From SLEX to Osmena Highway, then right to Quirino Avenue
- Northern Truck Route:
- From Port Area to NLEX
- From Bonifacio Drive, right to C3 Road, then left to A. Bonifacio Avenue to NLEX, and then to destination
- From NLEX to Port Area
- From Balintawak to A. Bonifacio Avenue, right to C3 Road, left to Road 10, and to destination
EDSA, where a total truck ban is observed, is not covered, and neither are C5 Road, Katipunan Avenue, Commonwealth Avenue, and all other routes not mentioned.
In addition, container trucks are prohibited from parking at any time of the day on A. Bonifacio Avenue up to Del Pan Bridge and other key roads designated by the City of Manila. – Roumina Pablo
