Sydney Ports increases presence at Port Botany following major delays that have left trucks queuing for hours on end
By Ruza Zivkusic | November 24, 2010
Sydney Ports Corporation has increased its presence at Port Botany following major delays that have left trucks queuing for hours on end.
Sydney Ports has been monitoring the DP World truck queues since last night and has this morning assigned marshals and staff to Friendship and Simblist roads to improve traffic flows.
Trucks trying to load cargo at Port Botany were recently held up after glitches in a new operating system introduced by the stevedore caused slot delays and cancellations.
“Sydney Port is in contact with DP World Terminal management to help manage related flow on issues and will communicate with industry during the day,” Sydney Ports spokesman Peter Zangari says.
DP World, one of two stevedores at Port Botany, has a widely documented issue with its new N4 operating system at its terminal.
The upgrade, which caused five trucking delays earlier this month, had stretched to five hours.
DP World is yet to respond to questions from ATN.
The NSW branch of the Australian Trucking Association has been heavily critical of DP’s actions because no trials were run before the new system was launched to determine if there were any problems with it.
“To put it simply this is idiotic and the height of arrogance and disregard for the impact on supply chain partners, stakeholders users and clients of the terminal,” ATA NSW Container Section Chairman Mike Moylan says.
The NSW Roads and Traffic Authority last week warned DP World its antics could raise chain of responsibility and fatigue management issues.