Managing empties has become a complicated and increasingly expensive business in Australia. Like most tasks in the supply chain cycle, it involves physical movement, commercial agreements and a series of transactions between different players, including shipping lines, freight forwarders, cargo owners, transport operators, and storage facilities. With this in mind, CTAA, in collaboration with the Victorian Government, hosted a webinar earlier this week where leading industry experts expressed their opinion and suggested new approaches for lasting solutions. As Australian ports handle over 8 million containers every year and support trade worth millions of dollars, empty container management is a vital function of an efficient and effective port. Issues with empty containers have broader supply chain impacts. Vulnerabilities including a mismatch in operating hours across the empty container supply chain mean squeezing larger numbers of container movement in shorter windows of time, inhibiting the existing storage capacity. Insufficient and inconsistent provisions of electronic data in the Empty Container Parks’ booking system and last-minute redirections also create additional administrative and operational costs to transport operators. But, behavioural practices on their part such as, arriving or scheduling appointments immediately before use, exhaust the ECPs causing delays and congestion. The Strategic Review Report launched…