KEY POINTS:
Ports of Auckland is introducing an ambitious booking system for container trucks this morning to prevent traffic bottlenecks clogging the waterfront.
Under the system, which is going on trial at the Fergusson container terminal before the port company decides whether to extend it to the Bledisloe terminal and
possibly its general wharves, road carriers are expected to book time-slots around which trucks must turn up to deliver or collect cargo.
Trucks travelling from within 100km of the waterfront will be allocated one-hour arrival slots, with 15 minutes' leeway on each side, to be extended to 45 minutes for those driving longer distances.
Port logistics manager Yvonne Theuerkauf said the system was being introduced as a joint initiative with freight carriers, after extensive consultation with other industry participants including shipping lines, freight-forwarders and border-security officials.
She acknowledged that an initial proposal about two years ago by the port company to introduce such a system was resisted strongly by carriers.
She said there was no great congestion problem then around the port, and the company was simply looking to future growth and a need to improve efficiency.
But the idea was raised again after Auckland became in January the favoured North Island port for handling cargo from Maersk, the world's largest freight shipping line, and a jump in volumes led to longer delays for container trucks.
Leading carrier Tom Ryan Cartage complained to the Herald in March of queues of port traffic extending back from Quay St to Beach Rd on the way to the Bledisloe terminal, and said one of its trucks took four-and-a-half hours to collect a container.
Although waiting times have since decreased to the point that Auckland can again claim some of the world's fastest container turnaround times, Ms Theuerkauf said the Road Transport Forum agreed to reconsider supporting the introduction of a booking system in case of future delays, while remaining sceptical.
But she said its scepticism disappeared after local carrier representatives joined her company in a research tour of Australian ports where similar systems had produced dramatic efficiency gains.
Forum representative Chris Carr of haulage firm Carr and Haslam confirmed its support in principle for the trial, after having studied the Australian examples and talked to freight carriers across the Tasman.
He understood trucks had sometimes queued for longer than 18 hours on the Melbourne waterfront, attracting food vendors and even prostitutes, before a booking system was introduced there some years ago.
Mr Carr acknowledged that Auckland enjoyed relatively fast turnaround times, but said these were creeping up from about 20 minutes over the winter months to 40 minutes in the busy pre-Christmas season.
Ms Theuerkauf said the system should eventually reduce traffic movements to and from the waterfront, as freight carriers took advantage of advance booking times to match their delivery of export containers with backloads of imported goods.
