UNIVERSITY OF GHANA CHALLENGES FACING MERIDIAN PORTS SERVICES (MPS) IN THE HANDLING AND DELIVERY OF CONTAINERS TO CUSTOMERS ON THE MPS TERMINAL, THE CASE AT THE TEMA PORT

ABSTRACT

The study made use of a descriptive cross sectional survey approach. The research

approach involves the use of questionnaires to obtain quantitative data. The target

population for the research consisted of workforce comprising management, employees ,

and customers of MPS container terminal. Consequently, six (6) technical/operations

managers were randomly selected from a population of eight (8) managers. Also, a

sample of seventy (70) respondents was randomly selected from a population of one

hundred and eighty (180) operations and technical staff. Likewise from a population of

three hundred (300) customers of the MPS container terminal, a sample of eighty (80)

was selected. In processing the data, statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) was

made use of. The study revealed that the equipments being used at MPS include; Reach

stackers,, Rubber-tyred gantry (RTG) Ship-Shore Gantry (STS), Empty Handlers,

Computers and LXE Trucks. Also, the challenges facing MPS in the delivery and

handling of containers include, clerks who are not properly trained to direct the operator

and twist lock not accurately fixed on trucks making landing of containers difficult. There

is no maintenance culture which has led to the equipment not properly being maintained.

Limited equipment to handle and deliver, power outages and high electricity bill were

some of the challenges identified by the study. The study recommended that MPS should

develop the maintenance culture of regularly servicing the handling and delivery

equipment in order to make them last longer and also new handling and delivery

equipment must be acquired to augment the ones already in use so as to serve the

customer better and to make workers comfortable to use.