Rising M1 Tolls Set to Boost Melbourne Freight Costs

As Victorian industry and the commuting public anticipate the official opening of the upgraded West Gate Tunnel and West Gate Freeway (M1) infrastructure in December, container transport operators are bracing for significantly higher road transport costs due to the new heavy vehicle tolls on the M1 corridor west of Melbourne.

The new tolling point for heavy vehicles will be east of Millers Road on the M1, with heavy vehicles having to pay a toll (inbound and outbound) whether they use the new Tunnel, the West Gate Bridge or the new ramps to/from Hyde Street.

This is the first time since November 1985 that vehicles – in this case heavy vehicles – have had to pay a toll to use the West Gate Bridge. A real, and costly “Back to the Future” experience!!

The Victorian Government will simultaneously implement No Truck Zones on inner west roads in Melbourne, including Francis Street and Somerville Road in Yarraville, Buckley Street and Moore Street in Footscray, Blackshaws Road in Altona North and Hudsons Road in Spotswood.

The No Truck Zones will have the impact of funnelling heavy vehicles onto the M1 (as the only authorised east-west route), and onto the north-south arterial roads such as Williamstown Road and Millers Road for access to the Port of Melbourne from the inner west industrial precincts of Tottenham and Brooklyn.

Tolling Impact on Transport Costs:

Modelling undertaken shows that the cost of container transport operations to/from the Port of Melbourne will increase by approx. 13% to as much as 30% (compared to typical current marketdriven base container road cartage rates).

The cost impact depends on the location of the customer, the allowed heavy vehicle routes, time of day, heavy vehicle utilisation ratios, and variables outside of the direct control of transport operators such as the location of the designated empty container park for import de-hire or export pick-up.

As around 60% of the empty container park capacity servicing trade through the Port of Melbourne is in the western industrial suburbs of Melbourne, modelling suggests that on many occasions additional tolls will be incurred as transport operators undertake the empty container transport task on top of delivering full import and export containers.

As an example, one typical scenario applicable to a container transport operator located in the west might include up to eight different trip tolls (or more) to complete the total supply chain logistics cycle for one shipping container:

• Truck travel to the container terminal in the Port of Melbourne to pick up full import container: 1 toll
• Truck travel back to transport yard with full container for staging through yard: 1 toll
• Truck travel from yard to deliver full container to customer’s premises: 1 toll (or more depending on the customer’s location)
• Truck return to transport yard: 1 toll (or more)
• Truck travel back to customer’s premises to retrieve empty container: 1 toll (or more)
• Truck travel to transport yard with empty container for staging: 1 toll (or more)
• Truck travel to de-hire empty container at empty container park: 1 toll
• Truck return to transport yard: 1 toll

Initial Transurban tolling rates for a one-way trip of a Heavy Commercial Vehicle (HCV) through the Millers Road Tolling Gantry will be $19.78 during the day. Longer Heavy Commercial Vehicles (LHCVs: i.e. 26 metres in length & above, including Higher Productivity Freight Vehicles such as 30m(+) A-doubles) will attract a higher toll of $29.67 per one-way trip during the day.

Taking the example container logistics scenario outlined above, and applying tolling costs associated with HCV operations during the day, shows that the total logistics cycle for that one shipping container could attract up to $158.24 in tolling costs.

Notice of Toll Commencement:

No formal notice has been given by the Government or Transurban as to the official opening date for the West Gate Tunnel and upgraded M1 network infrastructure, although the Government has indicated that it will be in December.

Australian Freight Forwarders has asked the Government and Transurban to provide at least one month’s notice so that transport operators can indicate to their customers when toll cost recovery will commence.

Irrespective of whether such formal notice can or will be given, our “best guess” is an opening date of Sunday, 14 December 2025 (** Note: speculation only! **).

Further Road Curfews / Road Network Impacts?

It seems highly likely that sometime after the opening of the new road and tunnel infrastructure and the coinciding enforcement of No Truck Zones in the inner west the Government will impose night and weekend Truck Curfews on Williamstown Road – anticipated before the State Election in November 2026.

Strong opposition to the forecast increase in heavy vehicle traffic on Williamstown Road has now been voiced vigorously by the community, the State Member for Footscray and by the Maribyrnong City Council.

This will further reduce options for container transport to/from the Port of Melbourne and will concentrate even more heavy vehicles onto the remaining north-south arterial roads, notably Millers Road.

If curfews are applied on Williamstown Road, questions whether the Government has invested enough to upgrade alternative feeder arterial roads such as Millers Road to accommodate the increased influx of heavy vehicle traffic. We’d anticipate in that case significant heavy vehicle queuing on Millers

Road between the M1 and Geelong Road, leading to transport delays and road user frustration.

Freight Forwarders has also raised with the Government and the Department of Transport & Planning (DTP) the urgent need to undertake principal freight network investigations to identify road network deficiencies that now prevent road transport operators from accessing the upgraded M1 and West Gate Tunnel infrastructure at
heavy vehicle design gross weights.

These network deficiencies include structures like the bridge on Grieve Parade over Kororoit Creek between the M1 and Doherty’s Road in Altona North (restricted to 68.5 tonnes gross vehicle mass (GVM)), bridge structures on the Princes Fwy west of the upgraded M1 (restricted to 69t GVM) and many bridge structures on the M80 Ring Road. These are just some examples.

Freight Forwarders urges the Government and DTP to commence an in-depth study of the origins and destinations of the Victorian freight task, particularly the container import / export task. Then, a solid plan of action can be implemented to further invest in the freight network to maximise the payload productivity gains that are
currently held back due to network deficiencies.

Source: PDF