KEY POINTS:
An ambitious new vehicle-booking system introduced yesterday to the Auckland waterfront won general approval from truck drivers for improvements in turnaround times.
The scheme, starting as a trial at the Fergusson container terminal by Ports of Auckland in conjunction with the Road Transport Forum, appeared to be achieving its aim of smoothing out peaks and troughs of truck arrivals when the Herald visited.
But port company spokeswoman Karen Bradshaw said more time was needed before passing judgment on the scheme. Although there were plenty of containers to be collected and delivered yesterday, a lull between ship arrivals meant the company was able to put a full force of cargo straddle carriers at the exclusive disposal of the more than 600 trucks booked into the computerised system.
That meant an average turnaround time for trucks by mid-afternoon of just 14 minutes, as they arrived during pre-booked time slots of 90 minutes for local carriers and 150 minutes for those travelling from more than 100km away.
Some drivers, grinning after receiving celebratory lollipops and bottles of water for their return trips, said they were in and out of the port gates in under 10 minutes.
