Roger Gray: Port of Auckland CEO on the increase in access charges for truck drivers

Access to the Port of Auckland is going to get more expensive for truck drivers. 

Peak access charges for trucks entering the Fergusson Container Terminal will increase from $130 to $180 in January.  

It will be followed by a further increase to $230, six months later.   

Port of Auckland CEO Roger Gray told Mike Hosking they've given transport operators plenty of notice. 

He says one of them happens in seven months and the other in 13 months, taking the port in the right direction. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Access to the ports of Auckland's about to get more
expensive for truckie seventy seven percent price hike. This is
on peak access, means you're paying about two hundred and
thirty dollars. The theory is it encourages off peak use.
They're trying to manipulate the traffic. Here Roger grows the
Port of Auckland as CEO and is back with us.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Roger, good morning, Good morning mane.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Now my understanding is you messaged this then you said
to people, you know, shuffle your entry to the port
around and that hasn't worked as well as you would
have thought.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Is that fear that is fair? We gave the advice
of these price rises over a year ago.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Okay, so people are going to freak out.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
I think there's certain concern from the transfer sective. We
have bought one of the increases forward by six months,
and you're exactly right. We're trying to influence the time
of use within the city to assist in reducing congestion.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Is that easily done? Can you just go to a
trucking firm and so, by the way, we want you
in at five point fifteen in the morning instead of
two in the afternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Well, what we do is we do have booking slots.
But you know, it's the behavior both of the trucking
companies but also the cargo owners opening up their distribution
centers that will allow us to achieve this goal. And
it's certainly a goal that the mayor is keen for
us to keep working towards.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
I'm not surprised. Is there good will amongst all of
this and to people get it? Or are you the
bad guy?

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Now? I think the National Road Carriers have perhaps portrayed
us as the bad guys. You know, we've given them
these price rises. To put in context, are fifty dollars
per container. One of them happens in seven months time
and one of them happens in thirteen months time. So
we've given them a long lead time and we think
that we're taking the right direction to the port.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Is it about revenue or do you genuinely think you
can move traffic? And if it doesn't move traffic, what
are you going to do?

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Then? Well, Mike, we're going to continue to lift prices,
and we've signaled that in order to do two things.
One move the congestion peek off to assist the city
and secondly, we want to continue on our commitment to
deliver a fair return to the city. And you know,
the interesting point about this is these charges and profit

(02:04):
support might go back to rate pays all put down
at pressure on rates.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yeah, but that's only because you happen to be owned
by the council. If you won't owned by the council,
to be owned by a shareholder and the shareholder be
getting bigger dibdends. So at the end, it's at the
end of the day, this is a big bottom line move.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Do you think or not it contributes towards our commitment
to deliver thee hundred million dollars profit that we've told
the city we would deliver.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Do you think they'll pass it on? So you charge
more than somebody else passes on, therefore it's inflationary.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
I think what it does is that it does get
passed on, There's no doubt about that. But as I said,
you contributing to downward pressure on rates helps. But secondly,
my fist was on hand length and power ten power
site just material amount of money.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Yeah, but that's always the argument. Isn't a little bit here,
a little bit there, And by the time everyone does
a little bit here and a little bit there. It's
inflationery and that's what we're trying to beat down, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Well, we'll do our bit by contributing back to the
city and the city. You'll do that by keeping our
AIGs lower than they would have been otherwise.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
The fact you're a monopoly. This has got a touch
of the old Auckland airports about it, doesn't it.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Well, we're not a monopoly. Like many cargo owners choose
to take their cargo in and out through the Port
of tone Iron or Northport, so a little different than
the airports.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Is that real?

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Though?

Speaker 1 (03:18):
If I'm suddenly coming into you guys, and I'm a
regular and suddenly you whack me with us, Am I
suddenly going down to Towerong or up to Northland because
of this or just suck it up?

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Well, what we've noticed is actually a number of the
cargo owners have been coming to the port and we've
grown by seven percent year on year in our container
body because of our proximity to the market.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
How does this sit with you, personally, hand on hard
boss of a port in an inflationary period, cost of
living crisis. Yeah, there's seventy seventy seventy seven percent. Suck
on that.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Well, I'll be honest with you. When I got to
the port, we were making a two point five percent
return on equity for the city. The container terminal was
losing twenty five million a year, and we're turning that
around and I feel pretty comfortable about doing that. Good stuff.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Nice to talk to you, appreciate it. Roger Gray, Ports
of Aukland CEO. And there is your classic problem with
the New Zealand economy. So he is answerable to the council,
his owner, and he's going to make more money and
he's going to make more money from you because he can.
And isn't that what we're trying to fix.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
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