Yet another congestion at Port Botany.
A massive truck queue stretching for more than four kilometres at the Port Botany terminal has caused angst among trucking operators this morning.
According to the Australian Trucking Association (ATA), the road network near the terminal has been clogged with more than 150 trucks waiting, causing hours of delay.
“This is so close to the Christmas season, this has caused a lot of angst among truck drivers and companies,” ATA NSW manger Jill Lewis told Transport and Logistics News.
Ms Lewis said the significant congestion was caused by an emergency evacuation drill that happened this morning, but the terminal operator Patrick failed to provide operators with a timely notice to mitigate confusion.
“What we think is reasonable to ask is that there should be ample notice about the situation so we can reschedule our truck deliveries,” she said.
The ATA said it was willing to sit down with the relevant stevedores and Sydney Ports to devise short-term solutions to get through the critical time of the year in order to avoid any serious interruptions in the port logistics operations.
It stressed there also needed to be long-term solutions to revamp the inefficient road operations around the port to effectively cater for the future growth in freight demand.
Realising the problems with the severe supply chain bottleneck at the key port, the NSW Government in conjunction with Sydney Ports Corporation initiated supply chain reforms, setting up a port road taskforce.
The first phase of the reform initiative will be the industry-led improvement in port efficiency, facilitated by Sydney Ports, with the next phase involving government intervention to tackle issues not resolved by industry.
The trucking industry argued Patrick seemed to have failed to implement the recommendations put up at the taskforce meeting held last month.