MELBOURNE container stevedores have agreed to confine changes to terminal access/infrastructure fees to 1 January of each year, in one of two changes to the Voluntary Pricing Protocol announced by the state’s Department of Transport and Planning.

The VPP was first introduced in 2020 as “a non-regulatory approach to improve transparency and communication between container terminal operators, government and industry in relation to terminal price changes”. It has been widely criticised by shipper and transports groups as a toothless tiger, however.

The Minister for Ports and Freight, Melissa Horne MP, has now approved two new measures for inclusion in the VPP, which DTP says “will continue strengthening the voluntary approach, whilst also responding to some of the recommendations from the Productivity Commission’s Maritime Inquiry report to align stevedore price changes to a single date to improve cargo owners’ ability to plan for these changes”.

DTP says the enhancements follow feedback from industry participants and will “build on the success of the arrangement and further promote transparency and administrative alignment”. All stevedores have been consulted on this change.

The changes are as follows:

  • Introduce a standard submission template for container terminal operators to provide greater levels of granular data in a consistent format in relation to changes to the terminal access fee/infrastructure fee. This will remain confidential to DTP and will support its understanding of how infrastructure fees are calculated, and change, over time.
  • Request that all stevedores voluntarily change landside pricing once per year on 1 January, commencing from 1 January 2025 and annually thereafter. Thus for 2025 changes,  the 60-day notice to industry and DTP would be issued Friday 1 November 2024, and the 30-day notice to industry would be issued on Monday 2 December 2024.

For more information please visit the Voluntary Pricing Protocol web page: https://www.vic.gov.au/voluntary-pricing-protocol  

DCN is canvassing reaction to the VPP enhancements and will report further.

The announcement of the VPP changes follows last week’s notification by Victoria’s Essential Services Commission that it is inquiring into the setting and reviewing of land rents at the Port of Melbourne over a five year period to ensure the process is commercially acceptable and in accordance with Port of Melbourne’s obligations to the Victorian Government.  https://www.esc.vic.gov.au/media-centre/regulator-releases-port-melbourne-market-rent-inquiry-scope-and-process-paper