A night-time ban on trucks using roads in Melbourne’s north-east is causing major delays and cost blowouts for fruit growers and freight companies heading to Epping’s wholesale market.
On August 20, nine north-south arterial roads that connect the northern suburbs to the Eastern Freeway – often dubbed the “missing link” of the M80 – were banned to trucks between 10pm and 6am in response to a petition signed by about 600 people.
The 12-month truck curfew was an election promise made by Labor MP Anthony Carbines, who now represents the seat of Ivanhoe.
He pledged to appease increasingly vocal residents fed up with truck traffic noise on main roads in the electorate.
The popular routes through the north-east were among the few options left to truck drivers making the daily commute between the new market at Epping and the south-eastern suburbs.
Victorian Vegetable Growers Association president David Wallace said growers from the south-east were having to detour via the city, adding another hour to their daily trips.
“I know of others who wait until the clock strikes 6am to use the roads [in Rosanna and Watsonia],” he said.
Luis Gazzola, a Somerville-based vegetable grower and member of the Vegetable Growers Association advisory board, said the curfew, being phased in over the next few months, was affecting “a lot of people.”
“What we need is the eastern Ring Road built; that’s the most important thing,” he said. “It should have been built 10 years ago.”
The truck curfew began on Waterdale, Waiora and Rosanna roads, at the western tip of Lower Plenty Road and on the Greensborough Highway last month, and will be extended by November to the rest of Lower Plenty, Ryans, St Helena, Main and Para roads.
Mr Gazzola said trucks would be forced onto smaller residential roads when the entire curfew was rolled out.
A long-standing Yarra Valley-based vegetable grower, who did not want to be named, said he was outraged by the truck ban, describing it as “a nightmare”.
“It means anyone who would use the Eastern Freeway needs to get onto the Chandler Highway or go all the way [into the city] and use the Tullamarine Freeway,” he said.
Sandra Lorenzetto, of Paul Phillips Transport, said the Cranbourne-based company had been forced to increase its delivery charges “by a fair bit” for trips between the south-east and the Epping market.
Shadow roads minister Ryan Smith said, “This would not have been an issue if the government had built the East West Link.”
