Yes, according to Peter Granger, operator of long-established Grangers Freight Lines, who wants Goulburn Mulwaree Council to give commercial delivery people a break.

Mr Granger wants more CBD loading zones, including some time-sharing with existing taxi ranks. He’s put together a comprehensive PowerPoint presentation for tomorrow’s Traffic Committee meeting to support his call. And in an accompanying letter to the committee, he points the finger at Council’s three newly-deployed parking officers for much of the delivery industry’s woes.

“We have not had many problems in the past 12 or so years, as Goulburn had no parking officer, and we were able to park in taxi and bus zones as we worked around the bus timetable,” Mr Granger says.

“But now we have three parking officers, and we’re getting $206 fines for stopping in these areas, because there’s only a couple of loading zones in town.”

Mr Granger complains there’s insufficient loading zones for the number of delivery companies and types of product they take into Goulburn’s main shopping area. Goods for retailers such as gift shops, clothing and other retailers, as well as cold food delivery vans, milk, soft drink and bread suppliers, and also security deliveries for banks and law firms.

(Not armoured vans: they already can stop in bus zones).

“My idea is to share some of the taxi rank areas at some locations, which revert back to rank space after the loading time limits,” Mr Granger suggests.

“In other locations, it would mean the loss of some parking spots for a period of time from 8am until about 3pm.”

Mr Granger says he put his rank time-sharing idea to Goulburn Taxis last November 30, but still hasn’t heard back from the directors. Mr Granger says it’s not only the frustrating and costly lack of loading zone access to retailers that should be tackled.

There’s also the question of tougher transport industry occupational health and safety requirements in and around unloading areas. Grangers Freight Lines would also like to know how they can help with designing, or redesigning, new and existing shopping centre loading areas – pointing out that Centro’s dock is too high for most delivery operations.

Council’s Engineering Service manager, Ian Aldridge, says Mr Granger’s taxi rank sharing idea “has some merit, since it assists the delivery carriers while not involving any loss of parking.”

“However, it is important that the views of the Taxi Cooperative are taken into account.” His recommendation to the Traffic Committee: “That, initially, the views of the taxi cooperative are obtained.”