The container ship Tanjin Bridge berthed at Northport yesterday morning, with its 919 containers due to start heading to Auckland along SH1 on Tuesday. Photo / Supplied
The container ship Tanjin Bridge berthed at Northport yesterday morning, with its 919 containers due to start heading to Auckland along SH1 on Tuesday. Photo / Supplied
More than 900 containers with goods destined for Auckland have started to be unloaded at Northport after the arrival of the container ship Tanjin Bridge.
The ship arrived at the Marsden Pt deepwater port yesterday morning and unloading of the 919 containers on board started at noon.
A Northport spokesman said all the containers have to be unloaded before trucks can go into the port to pick them up and transport them to Auckland down State Highway 1.
It's the second big container ship at the port in the past month, with Northport being used due to delays in unloading vessels at Ports of Auckland.
The first container is expected to leave the port at 7am on Tuesday and police are hoping all the trucks involved will be in better condition than some used in the earlier container transport operation.
Police will be meeting the trucks as they head to and leave the port on Tuesday to ensure their vehicles meet all safety standards before hauling hundreds of containers from Northport to Auckland.
Senior Pilot Captain Kirit Barot berthing the container ship Tanjin Bridge at Northport yesterday. Photo / Supplied
This comes after police took off the road almost 20 per cent of trucks and truck-and-trailer units that transported freight for Auckland retailers from Marsden Pt just before Christmas after they failed safety checks.
The biggest concern was the 11 trucks deemed to be of non-operational standard by a police commercial vehicle safety team at Uretiti, on State Highway 1 south of Whangārei, in the first three days of the operation.
Some truckies were caught bypassing the police checkpoint by driving along rural roads and their truck-and-trailer units were found to have the most safety issues.
One driver didn't even get to pick up a load after the containers were offloaded from Constantinos P because he was outside his driver hours.
Police commercial vehicle safety team manager for Auckland and Northland, Senior Sergeant Mike Flatt, said officers from Whangārei would be checking all trucks heading north and south at Uretiti.
During the first operation before Christmas, Flatt said 2041 trucks were checked between December 10 and 22, and 1189 inspection reports were done. He said 393 (19 per cent) failed their inspection due to several issues such as faulty brakes and lights, worn tyres, suspension-types issues, and cracks in the chassis.
"Some were more major than others but they were all still a fail. Also, some drivers were coming pretty close to their maximum working hours."
Flatt said 25 trucks and a further truck-and-trailer unit were issued with non-operational orders.
SH1 motorists are being urged to be aware of extra truck movements along the highway over the next couple of weeks while the containers are being transported.
