Road Carriers and Stevedores Servicing Port Botany are Subject to Mandatory Performance Standards

Road carriers and stevedores servicing Port Botany are subject to mandatory performance standards that regulate road freight movements to and from the port.

Port Botany Landside Operations Mandatory Standards (the Mandatory Standards) 2021 (PDF, 403.15 KB)

The standards are embedded in the Ports and Maritime Administration Regulation 2021. They came into force in 2010 and were last updated in September 2021.

Ministerial Directions regulating rail servicing arrangements

Stevedores at Port Botany are subject to a Ministerial Direction that regulates rail lift charge rates and rail booking cancellation terms.

• Rail direction - Hutchison (PDF, 164.42 KB)
• Rail direction - Patrick Terminals (PDF, 590.88 KB)
• Rail direction - DP World (PDF, 582.34 KB)

The Ministerial Directions are issued under the Ports and Maritime Administration Regulation and came into force in 2011 for Patrick Terminals and DP World and in 2014 for Hutchison Ports.

Consultation on proposed change to the Mandatory Standards

Transport for NSW consulted with stakeholders on a proposed change the Mandatory Standards truck time zones in May 2022. The proposed change would allow time zones for truck booking slots to start every half hour, the slots would continue to be one hour in length and overlap with adjacent time zones. This change has not been implemented to date.

Background and previous changes made to the Mandatory Standards

The current Mandatory Standards were last updated September 2021.

• Summary of changes made to standards in 2021 (PDF, 411.01 KB)
• Order issuing new mandatory standards 2021 (PDF, 144.39 KB)
• Mandatory Standards effective 1 September 2021 compared to standards effective from 18 December 2015  (PDF, 1.09 MB)

Mandatory standards were introduced under the Port Botany Landside Improvement Strategy (PBLIS) following a 2008 Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) finding that significant changes needed to be made to reduce port landside congestion and improve the efficiency of the interface between the stevedores and the road transporters.

Read the IPART report (PDF, 1.09 MB) and the NSW Government response (PDF, 94.57 KB).

Regulated rail servicing arrangements

The Ministerial Directions to stevedores regulating rail servicing arrangements applies a $540 rail servicing charge for the first 60 minutes with a guarantee of 36 container lifts which means a $15 charge per container.

If more than 36 container lifts are completed in the hour, the additional containers are charged at $30 per container (in addition to the $540 charge). Where less than 36 lifts are performed and containers were available, the charge of $540 is decreased by $30 per container not serviced.

The regulation also applies a $135 rail servicing charge for each 15-minute period after the first 60 minutes with a guarantee of 9 container lifts which is a $15 charge per container, and if more than 9 container lifts are completed in the 15 minutes, the additional containers are charged at $30 per container (in addition to the $135 charge).

The arrangements also require the carrying forward any negative balance a stevedore may owe to the rail operators’ next service.

Cancellation terms for bookings are included, with rail operators charged at a specified rate if they cancel within 48 hours prior to the window start time. If the stevedore cancels the window within 48 hours of its commencement, they are required to not charge the rail operator for that window and to charge the next equivalent window provided to the rail operator at a reduced rate.

Detailed information