More containers moving from port
Police inspect vehicles moving freight
Police will continue a crackdown on the safety of trucks carrying containers from Northport to Auckland with a second container ship due at Marsden Pt port today.
Police are urging truckies to ensure their vehicles meet all safety standards before hauling hundreds of containers from Northport to Auckland.
The message follows police taking off the road almost 20 per cent of trucks and truck and trailer units that transported freight for Auckland retailers from Marsden Pt just before Christmas for failing safety checks.
The biggest concern was 11 trucks deemed non-operational by a police commercial vehicle safety team at Uretiti, along State Highway 1, south of Whanga¯rei in the first three days of the operation.
Some truckies were caught bypassing the police checkpoint by driving along rural roads and their truck and trailer units were found to have the most safety issues.
One driver didn’t even get to pick up a load after the containers were offloaded from Constantinos P because he was outside his driver hours.
A second ship, Tianjin Bridge, will call in at Northport this morning to discharge the balance of her Auckland-bound cargo and port workers are expected to handle about 919 containers.
The company handling the logistics of ground transportation is liaising with KiwiRail around the practicalities of taking containers down to Auckland but the bulk will be put on trucks, starting Tuesday next week.
Police commercial vehicle safety team manager for Auckland and Northland, Senior Sergeant Mike Flatt, said officers from Whanga¯rei would be checking all trucks heading north and south at Uretiti.
“I hope the truckies maintain the required standards. There’s a lot of good operators out there and it’s a couple of them that bring the industry into the spotlight.”
During the first operation before Christmas, Flatt said 2041 trucks were checked between December 10 and 22 and 1189 inspection reports were done. He said 393 (19 per cent) failed their inspection due to several issues such as faulty brakes and lights, worn tyres, suspension-types issues, and cracks in the chassis.
“Some were more major than others but they were all still a fail. Also, some drivers were coming pretty close to their maximum working hours.”
Flatt said 25 trucks and a further truck and trailer unit were issued with non-operational orders