The Port of Melbourne is facing ongoing landside congestion following IT issues at DP World’s West Swanson Terminal earlier this week, which stemmed from complications during a terminal operating system (TOS) upgrade.

“Truck turnaround times at DP World WST have blown out considerably, leaving transport operators having to work extra shifts and trying to gain additional VBS slots in a scramble to catch up. This will mean that transport operators will be forced to work all available terminal shifts this week and into the weekend, at extra operating costs,” Container Transport Alliance Australia (CTAA) said.

CTAA added that on Monday the IT issues at DP World snowballed to their other terminals in Brisbane, Sydney and Fremantle. The IT outage resulted in all of DP World’s Terminal gates being closed for a short time.

“In Brisbane, the Terminal’s Automated Stacking Cranes (ASCs) and truck arrival kiosks were disabled. In Sydney, the 1100hr time zone for truck arrivals was cancelled, while in Fremantle trucks were diverted to the Truck Marshalling Area (TMA) until the IT systems could be recovered,” CTAA added.

The alliance further explained that the situation has been exacerbated by road congestion in the port’s Swanson Precinct due to an inadequate single-lane East/West road connection and ongoing restrictions from works on the West Gate Tunnel Project. In addition, the delays have been compounded by high winds and vessel schedule disruptions, causing a backlog of containers and significant flow-on effects to other facilities, including Patrick East Swanson Terminal.

“All stakeholders should understand that it will take transport operators some days to recover from these delays in Melbourne. This is due to the compounding effect of dealing with not only the containers that the operators have not been able to receive and deliver over the last few days, but also the subsequent container volumes becoming available for import pick-up or export receival. It has a compounding effect,” CTAA pointed out.

The Port of Melbourne is facing ongoing landside congestion following IT issues at DP World’s West Swanson Terminal earlier this week, which stemmed from complications during a terminal operating system (TOS) upgrade.

“Truck turnaround times at DP World WST have blown out considerably, leaving transport operators having to work extra shifts and trying to gain additional VBS slots in a scramble to catch up. This will mean that transport operators will be forced to work all available terminal shifts this week and into the weekend, at extra operating costs,” Container Transport Alliance Australia (CTAA) said.

CTAA added that on Monday the IT issues at DP World snowballed to their other terminals in Brisbane, Sydney and Fremantle. The IT outage resulted in all of DP World’s Terminal gates being closed for a short time.

“In Brisbane, the Terminal’s Automated Stacking Cranes (ASCs) and truck arrival kiosks were disabled. In Sydney, the 1100hr time zone for truck arrivals was cancelled, while in Fremantle trucks were diverted to the Truck Marshalling Area (TMA) until the IT systems could be recovered,” CTAA added.

The alliance further explained that the situation has been exacerbated by road congestion in the port’s Swanson Precinct due to an inadequate single-lane East/West road connection and ongoing restrictions from works on the West Gate Tunnel Project. In addition, the delays have been compounded by high winds and vessel schedule disruptions, causing a backlog of containers and significant flow-on effects to other facilities, including Patrick East Swanson Terminal.

“All stakeholders should understand that it will take transport operators some days to recover from these delays in Melbourne. This is due to the compounding effect of dealing with not only the containers that the operators have not been able to receive and deliver over the last few days, but also the subsequent container volumes becoming available for import pick-up or export receival. It has a compounding effect,” CTAA pointed out.