The road transport industry is raising “serious safety concerns” with the sudden decision to divert a large in-bound container ship to Northport to discharge 1300 containers.
Shipping operator ANL Container Line was scheduled to arrive at Port of Auckland on December 5, but congestion pushed that berthing date back to December 22.
The shipper says the delays are “unsustainable and unacceptable” and rescheduled the Constantinos P vessel to berth at Northport on December 6 instead.
National Road Carriers (NRC) chief executive David Aitken says the road transport industry is “keenly aware” of the supply chain issues and disruptions at the Ports of Auckland but moving the vessel to Northport is not a good solution.
He says the discharge at Northport will require 2600 road trips for trucks to travel to Northport to pick up the containers and then bring them back to Auckland.
“From a road safety point of view, this is not an ideal situation. There is poor roading infrastructure between Auckland and Northport, including two accident black spots at Dome Valley and the Brynderwyns.
“The trucks will not only be interacting with busy December traffic – our members will need to ensure that any drivers sent north have the necessary experience to navigate the Northland roads – linehaul presents different challenges to driving metropolitan Auckland roads,” Aitken says.
He says taking many trucks out of circulation and sending them to Northport will also have a knock-on effect on the Auckland and Waikato supply chains.
As the move to Northport is being treated as a force majeure event, extra costs for bringing the 1300 containers to Auckland will be charged to the goods’ importers, raising the possibility of price rises for the ultimate consumers.
Aitken says the issue has highlighted the problems across the supply chain and the lack of an optimal alternatives. The rail link to Northport does not reopen until January 11, so all the containers will need to be moved by road.
