HUTCHISON Ports has announced it is increasing its landside fees at its Sydney and Brisbane terminals.
The terminals operator issued notices on 17 March informing road transport operators of cost increases, effective 22 May 2023.
“A review of Hutchison Ports terminals in Australia has shown a considerable rise in costs to the business, a need to recover some costs on capital expenditure and further developments planned for the year,” the company wrote.
Responding to the notices, Container Transport Alliance Australia noted Hutchison’s proposal to increase its infrastructure levy and the cost of container slot bookings in its Truck Appointment System.
CTAA said Hutchison also plans to increase truck no-show and slot listing fees and introduce a new fee (in Sydney) of $40 per entry for double articulated vehicles (excluding B-doubles).
CTAA said its alliance companies “see no justification” for the implementation of a new fee which will “penalise” the use of Higher Productivity Freight Vehicles entering HPA’s Sydney Terminal.
“We view this new fee as HPA simply following the lead of Patrick Terminals who implemented a long vehicle fee in 2021,” CTAA director Neil Chambers said.
“HPA makes the broad statement that these vehicles take excessive time to position their trailers into truck grids which has slowed productivity, and that the non-servicing of these vehicle types is three times higher than other vehicles.
“HPA has not shared any of that data with the container transport sector as a whole, and we question the data’s validity.”
Mr Chambers said terminals and government should be encouraging optimal use of transport assets to meet future freight demands through Port Botany.
“To revert to semi-trailer operations would simply increase the number of trucks exponentially and would be more harmful to the environment,” he said.
“To penalise HPFVs in this way is not good policy or practice … it’s just a revenue raiser.”
Mr Chambers recalled Patrick Terminals’ initiative last year to establish formal landside efficiency groups for each of its terminals in Australia.
“We strongly believe that HPA should follow suit and establish their own formalised dialogue forums with their landside customers,” he said.
“CTAA is more than willing to assist HPA to establish these direct consultation processes … they are long overdue.”
