Christmas convoy in business
Asmoother ride is expected for a truck convoy carrying the big Christmas imports heading from Northport to Auckland after a rocky start. The NRC (National Road Carriers) and the Road Transport Forum have aired a wish for the smooth operation of the mammoth effort to get nearly 1200 containers of mostly Christmas goods from Northport, south of Whanga¯rei, to Auckland and further south by road by December 25.
The ship carrying the boxes from China and North Asia would have had to wait until at least December 22 to unload at Auckland’s port because of ship congestion and long delays there, so Northport stepped up last week to accept the biggest container ship it has ever handled.
The combination of a challenging job for the small container port, no available rail infrastructure and a tricky, fragile highway on top of truck queue frustration led to a public spat on Saturday between truck sector representatives and the port.
There were complaints on social media from some in the trucking sector, saying some trucks from Auckland were turned away empty when the port needed to close in the afternoon to rest staff until Monday morning, the implication being that it was unexpected.
But by yesterday the NRC and the Road Transport Forum seemed to have swallowed their strong reservations about the wisdom of Northport handling containers for southward transit enough to say they wanted the mission to go smoothly.
NRC chief executive David Aitken told the Herald: “We want to be able to operate safely, to send a truck 140-150km and be confident the booking will be honoured and come back with the container.”
Forum chief executive Nick Leggett: “We just have to work in together. Probably communication could be improved.”
Meanwhile Port of Tauranga, which has been handling its own export season as well as importing ships avoiding Auckland, said it had about 16,000 containers in its yard.
Chief executive Mark Cairns said that was about 25 per cent above what the port would normally try to operate for optimal productivity. A lot of double handling was involved.
It was the listed port’s peak export season with kiwifruit coming to an end and dairy exports under way.
“We are doing our best to accept diverted vessels and imports where we can. We are currently utilising every available bit of land.”
An example of diverting ships was one which dropped off 771 containers last Wednesday. They had now been railed to Auckland, Cairns said.
The biggest constraint of taking on extra cargo had been the availability of trains to transfer imports to
Auckland. “Over the last three weeks we have asked for 12 additional trains and KiwiRail have only managed to provide four additional trains.”
Auckland Council-owned Ports of Auckland is the country’s main import gateway. It has blamed its ship congestion — vessels have been waiting up to 10 days to berth and unload — on global shipping holdups caused by Covid-19 effects, unprecedented demand for imported goods and a labour shortage.
Maersk, the world’s biggest container shipping line, has said local congestion could continue into the second quarter of next year.
Meanwhile, Invivo Wines cofounders Rob Cameron and Tim Lightbourne took their frustration to the water yesterday, picketing a waiting cargo ship in the Hauraki Gulf.