22 Jan 08 Trucks face auction for access to port
USERS of Port Botany would pay a levy to use the facility at busy times, adding millions of dollars to the cost of getting goods through the site under a controversial proposal that has won the support of the State Government.
The head of the Roads and Traffic Authority, Les Wielinga, said introducing an auction system for users to access the port would relieve road congestion around the area.
Other agencies such as the Ministry of Transport, NSW Maritime and Sydney Ports Corporation have also indicated support for the proposal. The transport ministry has written to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal saying the proposal “may help achieve” more efficient use of infrastructure assets, while requesting more details about how the proposal would work.
But Mike Moylan, of the Australian Trucking Association, hawes criticised the idea as “novel and untried” and warned that it would be “a huge commercial risk to the state”.
“There are a million containers passing through the port every year. You’re talking a huge amount of money,” he said. “We did a survey among our members and no one was in favour of it.”
The proposal involves users of the port “bidding” to be able to gain access to Port Botany at peak times during the day, with some of this extra money to go to the stevedoring firms that operate at the port - Patrick and DP World. The rest of the money would be used to upgrade facilities around the port.
The State Government is conducting a review of how Port Botany operates to address rising congestion; it is now common for more than 2000 trucks a day to enter the port. The Government also wants to shift as much as 40 per cent of the movement of containers into and out of the port off roads and onto rail by 2011 - double the present amount.
Even if the Government reached its target for rail transport, this would still mean more than 3000 truck movements a day by 2011 and more than 4500 a day by 2025, a Botany Council official said.
To reduce truck movements, the RTA has given in to truck industry pressure to allow Super B-double trucks, stretched B-doubles that can carry two containers with a total length of up to 30 metres - more than 10 times the length of a compact car - on to the city’s roads.
A spokesman for the RTA said a trial of the use of Super B-doubles, limited initially to the area around the port, would start next month.
The trucking industry claims Super B-doubles could cut traffic around the port by 12 per cent.
Late last year the State Government launched a $1 billion expansion of Port Botany to add new shipping berths from 2012, raising fears of further traffic congestion.
The pricing tribunal argues that allowing port users to “bid” for access to the port at busy times would help spread truck movements throughout the day, helping to relieve congestion.
Martin Feil, of the Container Logistics Action Group, said the disastrous introduction of a new cargo handling system by Customs a few years ago showed how years of preparation could go wrong, hurting all port users.
Tags: Government, Trucking
