<p>Road transporters interacting with Melbourne’s port and rail precinct are being asked to contribute towards a study designed to identify solutions to landside port congestion.</p> <p>The Victorian Freight and Logistics Council (VFLC) has started a program that aims to weed out the more complex underlying causes of inefficiencies, such as the limited rate of backloading.</p> <p>The VFLC believes that Melbourne’s road congestion is complicated by inefficient use of heavy vehicles, including the statistic that the use of backloading is as low as 10%.</p> <p>Port of Melbourne’s Container Origin-Destination Study in 2002 found that 36% of trucks observed were not carrying a container, and about half were not fully-loaded.</p> <p>Freight vehicles make up 12% of Melbourne’s road traffic, but the VFLC believes this number will increase as national volumes double by 2020.</p> <p>Bureau of Transport and Regional Economics figures cited by the VFLC suggest that road congestion in Melbourne is costing $3bn a year and will be costing $8bn by 2015.</p> <p>The Truck Optimisation Plan, funded by Port of Melbourne Corporation, will be in two stages.</p> <br />
