New charges to cover $2.16 million in increased insurance costs at the Napier Port haven’t gone down well with truckies, National Road Carriers says.
NRC chief executive David Aitken says it’s unfair to penalise the road freight transport industry, which are not customers of the port.
“Our members are simply delivering or collecting containers and other freight on behalf of importers, exporters and the shipping companies. The road freight transport industry is simply a service provider.”
The port should be passing on its increased insurance charges to its customers, the shipping companies, he says.
The increased costs come after the Christchurch and Kaikoura earthquakes pushed up premiums.
However, Napier Port chief executive Garth Cowie says the company has looked at all options for absorbing part or all of the $2.16 million insurance increase.
“In the end it had no choice but to pass those increases on to all our commercial customers, including the transport industry,” Cowie says.
The port has also taken on board concerns raised at a recent industry meeting, he says.
That led to it reassessing the overall weighting of the insurance levy on all customer groups.
As a result the levy to VBS customers, averaged across TEU (20 foot equivalent) and FEU (40 foot equivalent), has reduced from $8.95 to $8.25, the bulk cargo levy on logs, fertiliser and petroleum products, has reduced from $0.50 a tonne to $0.47 a tonne and the the port pack and rail levy has reduced from $6.25 to $6.05 per TEU, he says.
