Sorry it was Drive not CarExpert.
Article link - highlights pasted below if you can’t be bothered to click the link.
Massive read, but very insightful as to what we as customers don’t see going on in the background.
Joshua Dowling
“08:44 08 February 2023
EXCLUSIVE
More than
60,000 new motor vehicles – equivalent to almost one month worth of deliveries – are caught-up in a quarantine traffic jam on a scale never seen before in Australia.
The unprecedented bottleneck has forced thousands of customers stuck in the queue to wait even longer for their new car.
At least two-dozen car-carrying ships are anchored offshore or are in transit between ports – creating a pile-up at docks around the country – as expert cleaning teams struggle to treat vehicles for serious biosecurity hazards such as seeds and pests that threaten Australian agriculture.
Stevedores who specialise in car transport told
Driveit normally takes 24 hours – working around the clock – to unload a vessel carrying 3000 new cars, disembarking approximately
125 new cars per hour.
However, quarantine cleaning teams can only process vehicles at a rate of
nine cars per hour – during normal business hours – as the vehicles need to be thoroughly checked and cleaned.
At this rate, each quarantine cleaning team can only process about
350 new cars per week; Australians buy new motor vehicles at a rate of
21,000 cars per week.
According to ship-tracking information researched by
Drive, there are at least 24 car-carrying ships in limbo or in transit waiting to offload at ports around the country.
The worst affected port is Melbourne, where 12 car-carrying ships were waiting to offload as this article was written, with at least a further four car-carrying ships off the coast of Sydney and another four off the coast of Brisbane.
Based on conservative estimates of 3000 motor vehicles per ship – carrying capacity of each vessel ranges from 3000 to 6000 cars – the east coast of Australia has at least 60,000 new cars waiting to be offloaded.
It means new-car buyers in Australia who have already been waiting six to 18 months for vehicles face further delays of six to eight weeks until the backlog is cleared.
…
Some car-carrying vessels have been held offshore for up to two weeks until the docks clear.
Drive has seen bulletins sent from car companies to dealers and logistics operators outlining delays at ports around the country.
The exact number of vehicles affected is difficult to pinpoint, however shipping trackers show at least two-dozen car-carrying vessels are being held offshore or are between ports waiting to offload.
Offloading has been delayed by up to 14 days due to a backlog of vehicles being processed by independent contractors responsible for quarantine cleaning.
Affected vehicles cannot leave the immediate port facility area until they have been throughly cleaned, checked and then cleared.
Most new-car brands are affected by delays at the ports – regardless of whether they have quarantine concerns to address.
Caught in the bottleneck are most cars manufactured in the Asia-Pacific (where Australia sources the majority of its motor vehicles) including
Toyota,
Mazda,
Hyundai,
Kia,
Ford,
Isuzu,
Mitsubishi,
Nissanand
Suzuki – and Chinese companies such as MG, LDV and Great Wall Motors Haval.
Japanese car giant Toyota – which represents one in five new cars sold in Australia – is believed to be among the worst affected by delays at ports, due to contaminations among other brands of cars on shared vessels.
…
European brands have also been roped into the drama on the docks, because vehicles from other car companies on the same vessels have had biosecurity detections.
In one instance, in the second half of last year, Chinese manufacturer MG reloaded 1000 cars onto a ship at Port Kembla (south of Sydney) and sent them back to China to be cleaned after a snail infestation. The affected vehicles were returned to Australia late last year after being treated in China.
…
Once pests have been detected on cars recently offloaded from a vessel, a significant portion of vehicles stored around them – and in some cases the entire shipment – is held while it is cleaned and checked, a process that can take weeks.
In the interim, further shipments of cars cannot be offloaded from other vessels because there is no room on the docks until the affected batch of vehicles is cleared.
…
"However, depending on the type of biosecurity risk identified, a larger number of vehicles may be held particularly if (stink bugs) and other 'hitchhiker' pests that can fly or move about during a voyage ... present a broader concern and potentially affect a greater number of vehicles."
…
However, even Ford has been caught up in the latest delays – with a shipment of 2700 cars on the Hercules Leader being processed as this article was written, with more delays on the way.
…
Ford says its biggest shipping bottlenecks are in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Fremantle (near Perth).
It is not viable for car companies to offload vehicles at one port and send them interstate by road because there are not enough trucks to handle ship volumes.
…
Drive has been told by industry experts the increase in biosecurity threats is likely because new vehicles are spending longer in holding areas between the car factory and the shipping port where they are due to depart.
Because there are now more new cars waiting to be loaded onto fewer ships, thousands of vehicles awaiting departure are parked in grass fields for weeks at a time, before being loaded onto ships bound for Australia.
Even when parked in holding areas with hard surfaces such as bitumen or concrete, new cars are being stored for so long they are susceptible to seeds or pests being carried by strong winds and onto the vehicles, say experts.
…
An executive for another car company told
Drive: “No car company has a contingency for the current level of interruption and the current costs involved to clean and process these cars.
“The economy is struggling to find enough workers to offload cars in the first place. And service providers who specialise in quarantine cleaning for cars are also overwhelmed. They can’t get enough staff, and the people they do have are overworked and exhausted.”
…
"Such exotic pests and diseases if established in Australia are capable of damaging our natural environment, destroying our food production and agriculture industries, impacting our economy, and some could change our way of life."
…
"Vehicle manufacturers should put in place processes offshore to ensure biosecurity risk material does not contaminate vehicles in the first instance," said a statement from the Department of Agriculture to
Drive.
…
One major shipping provider has advised car dealers the quarantine crisis in Australia will have a knock-on effect for new-car shipments to other countries in the region – because empty ships are returning several weeks late to collect the next load of vehicles.
A confidential bulletin from a large shipping company sent to car dealers in Australia said: “In January 2023, 117 days were lost to terminal congestion in Oceania, more than double the amount experienced in December 2022, which was already at record levels.
“Every (car-carrying) vessel entering Australian ports is facing the same issue. All Australian terminals (that are designed to receive motor vehicles) are facing unprecedented congestion challenges, that are a result of more findings of seed contamination.
“This biosecurity issue is not related to stink bugs, for which there is a robust management process at load ports.
“Instead the latest issue relates primarily to seed contamination discovered after vehicles are discharged from the vessel.
