Operations at Bledisloe wharf

Ports of Auckland met with major road carriers today and will meet with the National Road Carriers Inc (NRC) tomorrow morning in an effort to find common ground regarding trucking sector concerns about the hours of operation for the road office and Receival & Delivery of containers at Bledisloe wharf.

We recognise the challenges currently being experienced by the industry.

By way of background, the port is currently experiencing significantly stronger container volumes than forecasted just a few months ago. November container volumes were around 17% higher than the same month last year, as a result of a stronger than expected import season, and a one-off vessel swap earlier in the month. Imported vehicles are also recovering strongly.

Despite these higher-than-anticipated volumes, average import dwell times are currently 1.75 days at Fergusson and 2.36 days at Bledisloe. We are also turning 70%-75% of trucks in less than 30 minutes.

At the core of the issue is our need to balance the needs of ship, rail and road resource. At the same time we aim to operate, as best we can, a level playing field for all road carriers, be they big or small, while still running a profitable operation ourselves.

Following our consolidation of container operations on Fergusson, only 10% of containerised cargo is going through Bledisloe. In the past six months, on average, only 21% of these containers have been gated in and out by the road office. It is not economic for us to keep the road office and Receival & Delivery of containers open 24/7; however, we are urgently considering what steps we can take to meet demand during this pre-Christmas rush.

We are working hard to get through this peak and will be going the extra mile to ensure our customers’ needs are met.

We will keep our customers updated as discussions with the NRC continue.

For more information, please contact:
Craig Sain, General Manager Sales, Marketing and Logistics, by email or on +64 9 309 1263.
Richard Potton, Manager Sales, Marketing & Product Development, by email or on +64 9 309 1249.

If you do not wish to continue receiving emails from us please reply to this email with "Unsubscribe" in the subject line.