EDITORIAL: Maintain low tariffs
Thursday, June 25, 2020 0:01
By EDITORIAL
The Naivasha Inland Container Depot.
FILE PHOTO | NMG
The State is finally getting its act together after starting on the wrong footing when it launched the Naivasha Inland Container Depot (ICD) last month with a fiat that all regional cargo must be hauled to the facility.
Kenya Railways has started a promotion that will see it haul a 20-foot container from Mombasa to the ICD at $480 from $600 and charge $680 down from $850 for 40-foot container.
However, instead of a promotional tariff, the State should adopt it as the official charge rate.
This kind of costing calls for the State to take into consideration what many critics of that rail have come to term as “hidden costs”-handling, last mile transport, return of empty containers to railway terminals and last mile for empty containers to depots.
