NEWS
Government accused of COVID pain
Despite being affected by alleged Government inaction, the trucking industry did what it has done since COVID arrived in New Zealand – just got on with delivering essential freight
TRANSPORT OPERATORS WORKING DURING THE COVID-19 lockdowns have been riled by what they say is a lack of timely Government planning, seriously affecting the industry’s ability to carry out essential work. From the outset, the change to Level 4 was problematic, as Nick Leggett, CEO of Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand (the new name for the Road Transport Forum) outlined. NZ’s low vaccination rate and the threat of the Delta strain of COVID-19 arriving here should have meant the Government had a plan to quickly deal with any outbreak, Leggett suggested – but added: “We certainly aren’t seeing evidence of that.” Even before the nationwide L4 lockdown, the industry wasn’t being considered, he complained: “In an emergency situation, truck drivers are frontline workers. Yet, despite our attempts to get them higher up the vaccination queue, we have been directed by the Minister in charge to look at a Government website and wait our turn.” And then came the actual L4 lockdown – with the industry, despite it including trucking operations running 24-seven, given “no real notice of what the operating rules would be for this Level 4 lockdown…. particularly as we have been told this Public Health Order cancels out all the previous ones.” While truckies got on with the job regardless, many were confronted with the same problems they faced in last year’s lockdown: Sparse access to food and toilets on main freight routes… And no Government extension for drivers’ licences, endorsements 4 | Truck & Driver
and the likes of Certificates of Fitness that were expiring during the lockdown. Leggett asked for Government action to address that issue – just as it had in April last year, when a Government Order granted extensions. But 16 days later, he was still demanding action: The lack of it, he said, was putting transport operators’ insurance at risk – leaving them “with potentially business-destroying liability.” The situation could “take essential workers – truck drivers and their trucks – off the road at a time when they’re most needed,” he pointed out. The only response was that “it’s complex.” Leggett said that about 1000 CoFs expire each day – “so, 16 days on, that’s potentially as high as 16,000 (trucks without current certification). We understand that even in Level 3 areas, where there is limited ability to get CoFs renewed, that’s a high volume to process – and it’s banking up by the day.” Added Leggett: “Being told by the Government that the Police will go easy on truck drivers whose licences have expired and/or whose CoFs have expired means absolutely nothing.” That is, he said, “missing the point: A fine from Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency is not the same as losing a $500,000 truck in an accident – and finding the insurance company says you’re not insured because you don’t have the right paperwork and/or the driver was not licenced to drive.” The Government, he said again, “should be getting better at this, but each day feels like Groundhog Day!”
