Nexus between Gang Productivity of Labour and Ship Turnaround Time in Tanzania Ports: A Case Study of Dar es Salaam Port

Abstract

Ship turnaround time is one of the significant indicators used to measure port performance. It involves the total time spent by the vessel at the port from its arrival to departure. The aim of ship charterers/owners and shippers is to find a port with fast and efficient port calls in order to have a definite business profitability and commercial advantage. Dar es Salaam port has been experiencing higher ship turnaround time due to operational inefficiency that leads to vessel traffic at outer anchorage. Vessel traffic has been causing customer dissatisfaction such as shipment delays and increasing extra costs to shippers and ship charterers/owners and some shipping companies have opted to use neighboring ports like Mombasa in order to escape the cost burden. Tanzania’s government has been losing revenue due to port inefficiency. Therefore, this research problem is derived from customer complaints who are involved in the shipping business. Therefore, the study used a quantitative approach with secondary data from the year 2020 to 2022 that collected from Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) and Tanzania Shipping Agencies Corporation (TASAC). The data to be collected includes ship turnaround time and gang productivity of labour. The analysis of the study used analysis of variance, correlation and regression analyses depending on study specific objective in particular. The data analysed through R-programming as well as Microsoft Excel. The study found that the labour gang productivity exhibited significant correlation with turnaround time specifically, labour gang productivity in general cargo operations was correlated significantly with shorter turnaround time. The findings suggested that any potential extension of bulk operations may lead to congestion and space limitations, further impeding turnaround time for bulk ships.

Key Words: Gang Productivity of Labour, Ship Turnaround Time