Rail ferry freight rates slashed for big trucks

Press, 10 November 1983, Page 2

Rail ferry freight rates slashed for big trucks

PA Wellington Freight rates for big trucks travelling in the Cook Strait rail ferries have been slashed by the Railways Corporation in its “get tough” attitude to commercial competition.

In a letter to customers and truckers, the Railways said it had reduced its top rate for big high-loaded trucks to $9O for each metre of the truck’s length. The previous top rate for such trucks would have been about $135 a metre, and so an average 10m truck is now offered a saving of $450 for an inter-

island crossing. 'ln addition, truck drivers are offered free passage. For partly loaded vehicles, the freight rate is being scaled down to $5l a metre in the reverse direction. The difference has’ been in force for some.years, as an encouragement to South Island traders. The new rates were particularly angled at attracting the big, high, heavy commercial loads, and were prompted by two factors—the extra freight space available in the new ferry Arahura and the need to compete strongly with the Lyttelton ferry, Spirit of Free Enterprise. The, corporation said the Arahura had 50 per cent more headroom than the specialist freight ferry Arahanga and had more room for turning vehicles on her longer road deck. The Arahura will leave Denmark and begin work on December .21. a “We are determined to use this extra capacity,” a , Railways spokesman said yesterday. “We are also responding to the rates being offered by the Spirit of Free Enterprise.”