Transport body Road Freight NSW welcomes a key recommendation in the final report on the Port Botany Landside Improvement Strategy (PBLIS).
The report recommends that it remains in public hands, after RFNSW lobbied the NSW government to keep the PBLIS away from privatisation.
Road carriers and stevedores servicing Port Botany are subject to mandatory performance standards that regulate road freight movements to and from the port.
RFNSW CEO Simon O’Hara says that the transport body believes that this is the most effective way to manage standards and regulations around the movement of freight at Port Botany.
“RFNSW has long-maintained that PBLIS has delivered the most productive port in Australia and that any sale or administration of PBLIS by a third party, such as the private port operator, would undermine the solid productivity gains delivered by PBLIS across the supply chain,” he says.
“We fully-support the finding that current arrangements, where Transport for NSW (‘TfNSW’) administers the regulation is appropriate at this time.
“From our perspective, there’s a real benefit in keeping the PBLIS under the watch of TfNSW, not only for the good of trucking operators, but for the wider community.
“We are pleased that the government has listened to our concerns about privatising PBLIS, which was one of our main 2023 election priorities.
“Whilst we support some of the report, we need clarification on a number of the PBLIS recommendations, such as recommendation 6 ‘removing the power for regulating stevedore charges’ – given that trucking operators are already struggling to cope with stevedores’ ever-increasing terminal access fees”; recommendation 10 removal of A and B carriers and recommendation 17 ‘certification requirement for container transport road operators’, amongst others.”