Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Justin Tighe-Umbers: National Road Carriers CEO on the Port of Auckland raising its truck access charge

Transcript

Justin Tighe-Umbers: National Road Carriers CEO on the Port of Auckland raising its truck access charge · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Auckland's Port is hiking its access fees once again. From
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: next year the cost will rise, It will increase seventy
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: seven percent and twenty twenty two freight distributors would pay
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: around eight bucks a vehicle. Next year they'll be paying
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: as much as two hundred and thirty dollars a vehicle.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Just in tai Umba's National Road Carriers Association CEO with
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: me this morning, justin, good.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Morning, Good morning Ryan, thanks for having me on.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: They need to be profitable, that's their argument. They need
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: to be profitable and they need to get trucks off
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: the road during peak hours. Do you buy it?
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, we accept that the port has to make
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: a fear out of return for its owns or can
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Council and it hasn't been today. But that's why the
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: port has gone and said its forecast charges as part
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: of its commitment to return a dividen into the council
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: under the ten year long term plan. And so last
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: year the port said its pricing pathway, they put an
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: access charge forecast to go up wapping thirty seven percent,
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: and the transport operators went happy with us, but they
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: took a deep breath and said about telling their customers
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: the bad news, hearing billing system adjustments, you know, all
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: of the admin work that goes in behind that white
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: patn this week is the porter's told them that thirty
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: seven percent increases not enough. It's going to be double
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: to seventy seven percent, as you say. And so transport
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: operator is absolutely fed up with the increases, the lack
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: of certainty. You administered a burden and they're getting absolutely
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: nothing back for this latest increase. There's no improvement to
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: services or anything like that.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: And guess what you've got nowhere else to go?
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: That's right? What is it? Is a monopoly?
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: What's the reaction been from the retailers? And who's going
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: to pay this cost? Because it's twenty five million bucks?
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: You reckon?
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, there's about ten thousand containers going through each week.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: That translates to just another twenty five million dollars taken
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: out of the system effectively. And what this does is
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: it hurts the exporters, manufacturers, importers, and ultimately it hits
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: you and I in the pocket, so as can humans.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: So you can think about the money go around. The
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: port sets up its charge, it gets passed through to
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: a transport operator, the then pass it through to freight border,
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: to the cargo owner, to retailer, and then ultimately we
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: pay for it. So yeah, there's a lot of frustration
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: all the way through that system. And the real issue
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: with this ryan is is that it's doing nothing to
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: lift our productivity as a nation, and in fact, every
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: dollar that goes on these charges make our exports less competitive.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: They say, if you go off peak, because they want
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: to get cars off the road at peak times. This
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: is all can transport the owner, this is their goal.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: They say, if you go off peak, it's half priced.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Why can't you do more journeys at nights and weekends?
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, in transport operators would love to operate more
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: off peak, and it's easier time to operate, there's less traffic.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Obviously it's more efficient. But there's actually a couple of
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: key impediments to that happening, and one is a around
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: the areas where all of these goods are being delivered,
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: the distribution centers, etc. There are often covenants from the
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: council about noise, so trucks noise abatements so trucks can't
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: drive down roads after particular hours at night. The other is,
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: actually we don't have the workforce set up. Walkland still
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: a relatively small city. We're not big enough to move
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: to a twenty four hour city model where you've got
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: twenty four hour distribution centers running because we just simply
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: don't have the workforce. We don't have enough people who
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: are prepared to work those hours. So there's real structural
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: limitations here. So getting up the price to get that
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: shift is ultimately going to bang into those limitations.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Justin appreciate your time. Justin Timber's a chief executive National
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Road Carriers Association.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: For more from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: to news Talks at be from five am weekdays, or
• 3:49
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