Ferry f ire fears spark call to action

Fears of fires on inter-island ferries has prompted the Shipping Federation to lobby for stricter policing of dangerous goods.

Federation chief executive Annabel Young said ferry companies were concerned about trucks carrying undeclared or incorrectly labelled dangerous goods.

Some truckies were caught trying to take undisclosed dangerous goods on regular sailings, instead of on freight runs which carry fewer passengers, and allow cargo deemed higher risk.

Young said ferry operators came across problems by chance and were worried about what else they were missing through lack of pre-boarding inspections.

‘‘We’ve complained about it for years . . . we’re sick of being brushd off, so we’ve escalated it.’’

After recent meetings with the New Zealand Transport Agency, Maritime NZ, WorkSafe and the Environmental Protection Agency, Young said KiwiRail, which runs InterIslander services, and Bluebridge Cook Strait Ferries agreed to report dangerous goods issues to the agencies.

She was aware of at least half a dozen reports in the past month – ‘‘enough incidents to be severely troubled’’.

‘‘Some things . . . cannot be in an enclosed space, some things can’t be put next to each other. A simple example is a trailer-load of hay which can spontaneously combust, so you don’t want to put that next to volatile gases.’’

Local ferry operators were mindful of the number of fires on roll-on roll-off ferry vehicle decks overseas, Young said.

International transport industry insurer TT Club recently said it was estimated a serious container ship fire at sea occurred on average every 60 days, and there had already been four big cargorelated fires this year.

TT Club said its records indicated 66 per cent of incidents related to cargo damage could be attributed to poor practice in the overall packing process, including cargo identification, declaration, and documentation.

Interislander operations general manager Mark Thompson said KiwiRail staff checked paperwork before loading to ensure cargo matched the booking.

‘‘If discrepancies are found by our terminal staff or ship crew, we will not carry the freight until it is corrected and we’re satisfied that it complies. This means that on occasion, we do reject cargo.’’

KiwiRail decided about a year ago it would no longer carry Class 1 explosives, except for small ammunition.

‘‘We’ve complained about it for years.’’ Shipping Federation chief executive Annabel Young