Victoria's major container transport companies have resolved to pass on a hefty hike in CityLink truck tolls to their customers, in a move they warn will ultimately raise the cost of household goods.
Tolls for heavy vehicles using CityLink and the Monash Freeway will rise as much as 125 per cent on April 1, when a deal struck between Transurban and the Andrews government to help pay for the $1.28 billion widening of the Tullamarine Freeway and CityLink takes effect.
Heavy vehicle operators have cried foul over the looming jump in costs, which will not affect private motor cars, and have agreed to pass the charge straight onto their customers in the form of a new "toll surcharge" on invoices.
Trucks will be charged three times the daytime rate for cars, and double the night-time rate, when the new charges are introduced on April 1.
Neil Chambers, Director of the Container Transport Alliance Australia, which represents many of the largest freight operators, said companies had made a collective decision to pass on the charges.
"A truck leaving the Port of Melbourne on a return day trip to Dandenong will face tolls of close to $60," Mr Chambers said. "With a significant portion of Victoria's two million containers [a year] either going to or from the south-eastern suburbs; this amounts to a massive impost on the container supply chain."
Container transport operators face CityLink toll increases of up to 125 per cent from April 1. Photo: Jason South
The toll increase will add hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to the cost of driving on CityLink for the state's larger operators.
Steve Dean is general manager of Coynes Transport, a mid-sized container operator that spends an estimated $500,000 a year on CityLink tolls.
He predicted that bill would roughly "double" when the tolls rise, but said consumers would ultimately pay, because Coynes could not afford to.
"Transport operators won't be able to carry the expense, no matter who they are," Mr Dean said.
"Coles and Woolworths, when they receive their goods, they use contractors and those contractors use the toll road," he said.
"He has to look at increasing the cost of his delivery into the store and they perhaps have to look at increasing the cost of the unit price of the item. You'll go to the checkout, your baked beans will have gone up a couple of cents a can."
The industry has also warned of a likely increase in truck traffic on suburban roads when the tolls rise, as some operators by-pass CityLink to avoid paying.
But Premier Daniel Andrews said better roads would make container transport more efficient and safer, "a good thing for those who work in that industry and indeed a good thing for all of us".
"They want a more efficient road network, they understand that comes at a cost," Mr Andrews said.
"The way that businesses operate, some of that cost will be absorbed by them, other parts of those costs will ultimately be reflected in the pricing they deliver to end users of their product."
The CityLink/Tulla widening project is due for completion in 2018. Transurban also negotiated a one-year extension of its concession deed as part of the project.