A new vehicle management system has been tested at the Valletta Waterfront project in Pinto Wharf.

The system was developed with the aim of restructuring the arrival, parking and booking system of the taxis at the wharf so as to avoid congestion.

The Malta cruise network initiative provided the forum for the police, White Taxi Licensed Amalgamated, representing over three quarters of the independent taxis on the island, ADT - the Malta Transport Authority and Viset's safety and security department to work towards eliminating the congestion and organisational problems in the area.

The process began a month ago and entailed drawing up a framework within which all parties considered the issues.

In spite of Thursday's weather the trial went ahead with the taxis parking in a double line down from Pinto 5 Gate at the bottom of Crucifix Hill. This enabled them to be self regulating in the order in which they picked up cruise line passengers.

As a result, the police redirected their activities towards the next task of maintaining order within the area as a whole.

"We chose a day when the terminal would be moderately busy and we had two good sized cruise liners in. We now look forward to implementing the exercise with a few changes," said Viset's safety and security manager Josef Cuschieri.

The trial day is the first in a series of steps aimed at structuring the organisation of vehicles in the Pinto Wharf area.