QUOTE: Freight & Trade Alliance (FTA) director Paul Zalai said stevedore companies like DP World could hike their terminal access charges – a fee truck and train freight pays to access the docks to drop off or pick up containers from ships. "The stevedores have got a money tap – whenever they need to recover costs and increase profit, they just increase these charges and they're incontestable and unregulated," he said.

Container Transport Alliance Australia (CTAA) director Neil Chambers agreed the increase in salaries would eventually hit consumers with increased costs to imported food, medical supplies, toys and furniture. "All of these additional operational costs – lumped on top of rent increases and energy fees – aren't necessarily being borne by their shipping customers, but their land transport," he said. "It immediately goes back to the importers and exporters … Ultimately that makes imported goods dearer, and exported goods less competitive in world markets."

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Herald Sun - DP World wharfies amid highest paid in the world after months of industrial action