Talks begin over desparate empty container situation in Melbourne
The Victorian Transport Association (VTA) has welcomed agreement by Shipping Australia Limited (SAL) for talks to proceed on Wednesday 10 March on empty container management in Melbourne.
In January the VTA highlighted the unacceptable levels of truck queuing delays at empty container parks leading to increased land transport costs. The VTA called for decisive action, starting with the shipping lines taking responsibility for the lack of empty park capacity and accepting that there are systemic problems that must be addressed by all parties in the container transport chain.
VTA CEO Philip Lovel AM said: “We are pleased that the CEO of Shipping Australia, Llew Russell, has said that shipping lines do not resile from the fact that there have been problems with empty park capacity in Melbourne, and that the global financial crisis has meant a lower level of repatriation of empty containers overseas, leading to storage capacity constraints.
“There has also been acceptance that some parks have experienced equipment failures, that more can be done to improve information visibility in the container transport chain, and that work should be undertaken to explore longer opening hours for the empty parks.
“It is good that the shipping lines are willing to sit around the table to explore every avenue collaboratively with other stakeholders to avoid major congestion at empty container parks in the future,” Mr Lovel noted.
The VTA / SAL meeting on Wednesday, 10th March will include representatives from shipping lines, transport companies, customs brokers & freight forwarders, importers & exporters, empty container park managers and government officials.
The meeting has received strong support from the Port of Melbourne Corporation, and representatives from the Victorian Department of Transport, VicRoads and the Office of the Minister for Roads & Ports, Tim Pallas, will be in attendance to encourage industry stakeholders to find viable long-term solutions.
“We will be seeking operational outcomes from the meeting. Everyone needs to understand the current level of capacity constraints in empty container storage in Melbourne, and the projected future needs as trade volumes grow. Then we need to get on with work to improve park performance, minimise truck queuing, address container equipment maintenance and reliability, and implement better electronic information exchange,” Mr. Lovel said.
“We know that the landside operators will be at the meeting in numbers. We only hope that the positive comments from Mr Russell are back up by a good number of shipping line representatives also attending the meeting who are prepared to accept their share of responsibility in finding lasting solutions to systemic empty container management issues in Melbourne.”
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