A trucking body fears exporters could start to run out of shipping containers within a few weeks after the Transport Ministry performed its second u-turn on freight industry rules within two days.
The Transport Ministry withdrew advice over the weekend that Finance Minister Grant Robertson provided at a press conference on Friday.
Robertson had said at the press conference that “non-essential” businesses would be allowed to receive shipping containers at their stores and unpack them so they could be freed-up for essential goods.
Road Transport Forum chief executive Nick Leggett warned last week of a “pile-up” at ports if truckers were not allowed to move and unload shipping containers containing non-essential goods during the coronavirus lockdown.
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The Transport Ministry has since clarified that ports and truckers will be allowed to move non-essential freight into storage if that is necessary to prevent it getting in the way of essential goods.
STACY SQUIRES/STUFF
251110 NEWS PHOTO. STACY SQUIRES THE PRESS. believed to be around 80 trucks were parked up at Lyttelton Port container terminal today waiting to be unloaded
But Robertson went further on Friday, saying he also wanted businesses to be able to receive and unload non-essential goods, though not to sell them.
“We wouldn’t want stores to open for sales, but we would want stores to be able to open their facilities to receive those goods, so we can free those containers up for essential goods coming into New Zealand,” he said.
That advice was included in an update published by the Transport Ministry several hours later on Friday evening which was welcomed by the Road Transport Forum.
But the instruction that businesses could receive goods and unpack shipping containers to free them up was then removed in a further update on freight rules posted by the ministry to its website over the weekend.
Trucking company Mondiale said in an update to customers on Sunday that Robertson’s “change of tack” appeared to have been validated by advice put out by the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI).
But over the weekend, Mondiale spoke directly to the Ministry of Transport, “following up on their update which was sent late Friday night and was then subsequently changed on Saturday afternoon”.
KEVIN STENT/STUFF
Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s advice on Friday appears to have been overwritten.
Its understanding was now that non-essential businesses with MPI-approved transitional storage facilities (ATFs) could receive containers at their sites for storage purposes, but were “not permitted to unpack them”, it said.
“Containers can only be moved once to be put into a storage site and then cannot be moved again.”
More than 99 per cent of New Zealand’s goods imports and exports move by sea.
Leggett said the movement of freight was the “life blood of the economy” and it had significant concerns about the latest development.
The pinch from a lack of shipping containers was likely to be felt in about two to three weeks, he said.
“We need to think ahead. Not all these problems are today’s problems but they will be a problem in the not too distant future.”
Export NZ executive director Catherine Beard said she was not aware of exporters voicing concerns at this point.
A shipping industry source said the situation appeared fluid, with rules changing and the possibility of further changes ahead.
Leggett said he was surprised the Transport Ministry had changed its guidance twice, and the forum was now hoping for a third u-turn.
“It destabilises the supply chain and it doesn’t strike a note of confidence in the response and the recovery.
“We want the distinction between essential and non-essential freight to come off so all freight can be moved if required.
“Essential freight can still be prioritised. What we don’t want to be doing is tripping over ourselves,” he said.
The Transport Ministry has been approached for comment on whether a further reconsideration of its freight rules was possible.
