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Speaker 1: Auckland's Port is hiking its access fees once again. From

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Speaker 1: next year the cost will rise, It will increase seventy

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Speaker 1: seven percent and twenty twenty two freight distributors would pay

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Speaker 1: around eight bucks a vehicle. Next year they'll be paying

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Speaker 1: as much as two hundred and thirty dollars a vehicle.

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Speaker 1: Just in tai Umba's National Road Carriers Association CEO with

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Speaker 1: me this morning, justin, good.

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Speaker 2: Morning, Good morning Ryan, thanks for having me on.

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Speaker 1: They need to be profitable, that's their argument. They need

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Speaker 1: to be profitable and they need to get trucks off

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Speaker 1: the road during peak hours. Do you buy it?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, we accept that the port has to make

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Speaker 2: a fear out of return for its owns or can

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Speaker 2: Council and it hasn't been today. But that's why the

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Speaker 2: port has gone and said its forecast charges as part

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Speaker 2: of its commitment to return a dividen into the council

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Speaker 2: under the ten year long term plan. And so last

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Speaker 2: year the port said its pricing pathway, they put an

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Speaker 2: access charge forecast to go up wapping thirty seven percent,

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Speaker 2: and the transport operators went happy with us, but they

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Speaker 2: took a deep breath and said about telling their customers

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Speaker 2: the bad news, hearing billing system adjustments, you know, all

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Speaker 2: of the admin work that goes in behind that white

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Speaker 2: patn this week is the porter's told them that thirty

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Speaker 2: seven percent increases not enough. It's going to be double

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Speaker 2: to seventy seven percent, as you say. And so transport

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Speaker 2: operator is absolutely fed up with the increases, the lack

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Speaker 2: of certainty. You administered a burden and they're getting absolutely

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Speaker 2: nothing back for this latest increase. There's no improvement to

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Speaker 2: services or anything like that.

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Speaker 1: And guess what you've got nowhere else to go?

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Speaker 2: That's right? What is it? Is a monopoly?

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Speaker 1: What's the reaction been from the retailers? And who's going

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Speaker 1: to pay this cost? Because it's twenty five million bucks?

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Speaker 1: You reckon?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, there's about ten thousand containers going through each week.

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Speaker 2: That translates to just another twenty five million dollars taken

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Speaker 2: out of the system effectively. And what this does is

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Speaker 2: it hurts the exporters, manufacturers, importers, and ultimately it hits

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Speaker 2: you and I in the pocket, so as can humans.

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Speaker 2: So you can think about the money go around. The

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Speaker 2: port sets up its charge, it gets passed through to

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Speaker 2: a transport operator, the then pass it through to freight border,

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Speaker 2: to the cargo owner, to retailer, and then ultimately we

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Speaker 2: pay for it. So yeah, there's a lot of frustration

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Speaker 2: all the way through that system. And the real issue

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Speaker 2: with this ryan is is that it's doing nothing to

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Speaker 2: lift our productivity as a nation, and in fact, every

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Speaker 2: dollar that goes on these charges make our exports less competitive.

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Speaker 1: They say, if you go off peak, because they want

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Speaker 1: to get cars off the road at peak times. This

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Speaker 1: is all can transport the owner, this is their goal.

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Speaker 1: They say, if you go off peak, it's half priced.

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Speaker 1: Why can't you do more journeys at nights and weekends?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, look, in transport operators would love to operate more

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Speaker 2: off peak, and it's easier time to operate, there's less traffic.

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Speaker 2: Obviously it's more efficient. But there's actually a couple of

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Speaker 2: key impediments to that happening, and one is a around

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Speaker 2: the areas where all of these goods are being delivered,

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Speaker 2: the distribution centers, etc. There are often covenants from the

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Speaker 2: council about noise, so trucks noise abatements so trucks can't

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Speaker 2: drive down roads after particular hours at night. The other is,

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Speaker 2: actually we don't have the workforce set up. Walkland still

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Speaker 2: a relatively small city. We're not big enough to move

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Speaker 2: to a twenty four hour city model where you've got

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Speaker 2: twenty four hour distribution centers running because we just simply

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Speaker 2: don't have the workforce. We don't have enough people who

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Speaker 2: are prepared to work those hours. So there's real structural

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Speaker 2: limitations here. So getting up the price to get that

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Speaker 2: shift is ultimately going to bang into those limitations.

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Speaker 1: Justin appreciate your time. Justin Timber's a chief executive National

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Speaker 1: Road Carriers Association.

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Speaker 2: For more from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live

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Speaker 2: to news Talks at be from five am weekdays, or

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