Fresh on the heels of the Government’s increase in road user charges, we have another organisation attempting to charge trucks for road use.
But this story is different.
They have no authority to tax, and there are no roads, just yard space.
This is about the underperforming (by their admission, not mine) Port of Lyttelton (PoL), who have, for years, treated the movement of vehicles across their wharf with contempt. The cargo discharge areas are just a moving patch of dirt, shunted to the end of the wharf, unsealed, and thoroughly unsuitable.
Port of Lyttelton has had some serious issues, not of their making. The Christchurch earthquakes, the first on September 4, 2010, and followed by two in 2011, damaged the port as well as the city. Ten years on, rebuilding is not complete, and this, combined with some additional expenditure for needed and previously deferred expansion, has meant that the port is still incomplete and the rebuilding is still in progress.
Recently PoL signed up for the same VBS system (Australian owned) that is used in Ports of Auckland and Napier. They also use a Container Depot Management system for their empty depot in Christchurch. The premise of these systems for us transport operators is that it reduces truck waiting time, and makes trucks and ports/depots more efficient. After many years of use in Auckland we know it certainly benefits the port, and the benefit to the road operator is debatable, but is accepted. The container depot operating system has only benefitted the container depots.
For Port of Lyttelton, the VBS system comes at a cost, and this cost is charged to the trucking operator on the basis that they get improvements. That is, that there is a tangible gain, of a debatable quantum. However, the transport operators and their customers have accepted that there is a need for a VBS system, and it has been implemented.
From July 1, PoL have decided to use an internal vehicle management programme (named Venus) to assist them manage vehicles shipped through the port. This is essentially a cargo management system, and has been in use in Auckland for some years. This was needed because PoL have essentially held a very hands-off position on vehicle imports, as they have not considered them of much importance.
Suddenly though, as they discover how far short of meeting MPI, Customs and security requirements they have been, they have purchased the right to use the Venus system, and it has to be paid for.
They seem to believe it to be like the VBS, in that they expect the road carriers to pay them for it. They are also seeking payment from other parties in the process, and may even be attempting to “triple dip” in this cost recovery.
Venus has no similarity to the VBS at all. There is no gain for road carriers. All of the benefits of using the system are all for the port, and that allows them to update their internal management systems. There is no external benefit to road carriers. Simply, they have failed in the past to have suitable systems, and have updated their processes.
And that is where the road user charges arguments begin.
I was told that we should be paying for the infrastructure of the port, because we pay road user charges for using the roads (incidentally PoL is owned by Christchurch City Council which receives RUC money from government, so, in effect they already benefit from road user charges).
Apparently internal roadways that are essential for access, and are designed for forklift loadings are suddenly not adequate for trucks. Also, apparently, we are benefitting immensely from their roads, and we should be paying for them. Their argument was that the roads are solely there for trucks to service ships, and that we should pay for roads, loading areas and storage. Something like charging a courier for delivering your parcel, because they drove into your yard, and stopped while they delivered.
This ‘coincidentally’ appears to be linked to the Venus system, for which they want us to pay an appearance fee per vehicle. This fee would add somewhere between $5 to $10 per vehicle shipped across the port for no gain except to PoL’s bottom line. It is effectively a tax on vehicles sold in the South Island.
Somewhere in there they’ve lost the fact that their customers (the shipping lines) pay them for providing the necessary infrastructure to load and unload vessels, and that their scheduled charges contain a separate item for the charge of servicing the vessel, per item of cargo discharge. There is also a separate charge based on the vessel size and duration in Port for the wharf structure itself.
Typically a vessel call would benefit them in the area of $50,000 to $100,000.
When asked what benefit we would receive from the Venus system they were not able to advise of any. Nothing.
And that brings us to July 1 when the system was introduced.
Not wanting to incur any additional costs for services not received, I advised verbally (after two written advices) that we couldn’t pay for their own management systems.
I was told that our port access would be cancelled, and that we would have to get someone else to pick up vehicles from them.
From a port which has recently been in the news for allegations of bullying tactics, I guess I should have expected that response.
Here we have a port, attempting to apply an unjustified charge, to an unwilling party who receives no benefit from that charge, threatening the operation of a truckie, from a dominant monopoly position.
We will continue our discussions, but in a time of considerable financial pressure we do not intend to bow down to bully tactics, which unfairly seek to recover “business as usual” costs incurred in the course of someone else’s business.
The real concern is that this might be a “thin end of the wedge” approach to test the waters before other ports apply the same charging methods to charge us all more. And in this, us is you, because transport costs inevitably find their way through to the end user.
On your behalf, we will resist these costs.
*Chris Carr is the fourth generation to run Carr & Haslam Transport, which was founded in 1862.The company specialises in the transport of vehicles and provides freight services throughout New Zealand.
