LATEST landside performance figures released by Patrick Terminals have been welcomed by industry.
The figures were for the terminals of Melbourne, Fremantle, Port Botany (Sydney) and Brisbane.
Container Transport Alliance Australia director Neil Chambers welcomed several positive trends, including greater utilisation of rail in Sydney and continuing low percentages of so-called ‘no shows’ of trucks accessing the terminals in Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle.
Other key points were:
DCN reported on the start of on-dock rail construction back in 2019 and NSW Ports has listed a long term aim of moving three million TEU a year across the Port Botany wharves.
This is in line with efforts to reduce road congestion and cut emissions.
Mr Chambers noted the number of so-called truck ‘no shows’ in Sydney.
“The number of ‘no shows’ does appear to be a problem in Sydney and is something that needs addressing,” Mr Chambers said.
"For instance, recorded 'no shows' of trucks (i.e. trucks not arriving for their designated vehicle booking time slots) in Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle are only between one percent to three percent. However, recorded 'no shows' in Sydney are anywhere between five to fifteen percent."
Mr Chambers said the terminal / road interface in Sydney was regulated through the Port Botany Landside Improvement Strategy (PBLIS) Mandatory Standards, so one minute late incurred a no-show penalty.
"Whereas, in the unregulated ports there is some leeway given on many occasions if the truck is running slightly late," he said.
“There also might be an element of “slot hoarding” with transport operators not returning VBS slots that they are not going to use to the slot exchange systems in the regulated time frame.”
Another apparent issue is the relatively low percentage of trucks backloaded (i.e. take a load of export containers into the terminal and exit the terminal with a load of import containers). This was best in Melbourne at between 20% to 25%, but only around 15% in Brisbane and Fremantle and 10% in Sydney.
Mr Chambers said the reasons for low backloading rates were multi-faceted, including the different import and export tasks in each port and the use of one-way import or export “stack runs” that aren’t well suited to two-way loading.
“However, as the focus increases on truck utilisation as a measure of freight productivity and lower transport emissions for the given freight task, we need to collectively understand and implement initiatives to improve backloading rates, even across the whole port precinct,” Mr Chambers said.
“Overall, the trends appear to be quite positive and we are grateful to Patrick for making the effort to gather this data and contribute towards greater efficiency by sharing it.
“That is an approach we would encourage the other terminal operators to consider.”
The full list of quarterly data can be viewed here.