SOURCE https://www.fullyloaded.com.au/logistics-news/2007/victoria-and-tasmania-react-to-latest-stevedore-hike?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ATN%20eDM%2003%2007%202020&utm_term=list_fullyloaded_newsletter
EXTRACT
For the Freight & Trade Alliance (FTA) and the Australian Peaks Shippers Association (APSA), this includes a formal submission to the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Inquiry into the implications of the Covid-19 pandemic for Australia's foreign affairs, defence and trade.
On VICT, FTA director Paul Zalai notes that, VICT justified as a mechanism to provide income to cover a lease increase imposed by the privatised Port of Melbourne.
Zalai argues that all businesses face a dilemma of how to deal with unavoidable costs such as rent, infrastructure, labour and power. Those same businesses are then forced to either absorb costs or pass them on to their commercial clients.
"Similarly, stevedores should be forced to either absorb operating costs or pass these on to their commercial client (shipping lines). Shipping lines then have the choice to absorb or pass this onto shippers (exporters, importers and freight forwarders) through negotiated freight rates and associated charges," he says in a statement
"In contrast, transport operators (road and rail) are held at ransom, forced to pay an Infrastructure Surcharge to collect and deliver containers with no ability to negotiate price or service."
Zalai also notes that many transport operators have included administration fees to manage cash-flow associated with these charges resulting in cascading costs flowing through the supply chain. Ultimately, Australian exporters and importers pay further inflated prices."