Transporting New Zealand

SLOWING DOWN THE WAKA

The speed limit along most of State Highway 5 has been permanently lowered from 100km/h to 80km/h.

by Nick Leggett Chief Executive

Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand

“HOW DO WE MAKE THE WAKA GO

faster?” was a phrase that used to be heard a lot when the relationship between Government and the economy was front-of-mind, with Government ministers and senior officials.

Basically, it emphasised how Government through regulatory or policy means could help the business sector be more productive and therefore, help grow the economy to benefit more people.

Unfortunately, ‘how do we make the waka go faster?’, has gone the way of the moa and is now totally extinct. In fact, the mere utterance of it from a senior public servant would probably elicit a stern ‘please explain’ from their political masters in the beehive.

Private sector success and economic growth have not just fallen out of fashion in Wellington, they have become concepts so undesirable that they are actively used as a stick to beat the Government’s heartless opponents with.

Road transport, probably more than any other sector, is exposed to even the smallest economic corrections and it is therefore critical that the Government understands the commercial consequences of its decisions.

Every time businesses get whacked with higher compliance or labour costs it is like the Government pressing on the economy’s brake pedal. Often, they get away with it because kiwi businesses are resilient and resourceful and find ways to do make do with less, however, there is a limit.

The lowering of speed limits across large swathes of our roading network is a classic case where Government has sought a simple solution to a complex issue and has not considered the everyday impact it will have on businesses, communities and the economy.

We are told that lowering speed limits will fix our appalling road toll despite the fact that New Zealand’s high accident rate actually has a lot to do with the poor state of our roads and road surfaces, and the poor decisions people make while driving on them.

Anyone who has been on the road over the holiday period will be aware speed is an issue, but not the legal speed limit, rather it is the impatient few going well over the average traffic speed and forcing an unsafe passing manoeuvre on the wrong side of the road. Slowing all other traffic down is not going to stop this.

Lowering regional speed limits is, however, an easy sell for Wellington bureaucrats who have little regard for people who don’t live in our major cities or any understanding of the time-sensitive nature of moving goods around the country.

The “Stay Alive on 5” campaign that brought an increased Police presence to the Napier-Taupo highway during 2021 has been heralded as a resounding success in lowering the crash rate on the road.

It is impossible to overstate the importance of roads to the New Zealand economy. Ninety-three percent of all the food and goods we consume and export are moved on our roads and much of that, whether it be logs, milk or other primary produce starts its journey on regional roads. This is, of course, an uncomfortable fact for policymakers in Wellington, who with little interest in ‘making the waka go faster’ would love nothing more than to find a way to force more freight on to slow and uneconomic rail.

Just before Christmas, Waka Kotahi announced that the speed limit along most of State Highway 5, Napier – Taupo, would be permanently lowered from 100km/h to 80km/h. Needless to say the local community as well as businesses who rely on the route did not agree with the decision and do not believe they have been heard during the consultation process.

Twenty percent of the 4000 vehicles that use State Highway 5 each day are trucks carrying critical freight and it doesn’t take much maths to work out that the time added to those journeys will have a significant impact on freight timetables and businesses right across the Central North Island.

It is extremely disappointing that the lessons from the incredibly-successful community-led Stay Alive on 5 campaign – launched at the end of 2020 – have not been learned by Waka Kotahi. Extra policing to prevent dangerous driving combined with repairs to key sections of the road coincided with 15 months where there were not any deaths.

The reality is the only roads in New Zealand that will stay at 100km/h are those with a median barrier. If we were serious about safety, we would be spending the $4 billion a year the Government receives in levies from motorists and committing to an extensive upgrade of high-risk regional roads and highways, improving road surfaces and maintenance, and addressing driver behaviour.

Instead, we spend large chunks of this money on walking, cycling and rail projects of dubious merit and merely slow down the one productive transport sector we have.

This policy will ultimately make the waka go slower and will significantly impact our economic productivity, the end cost to the consumer and the price of doing business with the rest of the world. T&D

Ia Ara Aotearoa – Transporting New Zealand PO Box 1778, Wellington 04 472 3877 info@transporting.nz Nick Leggett, Chief Executive 04 472 3877 021 248 2175 nick@transporting.nz

The Kainui Contractors Mercedes-Benz Actros at work on another Waikato construction job.

GPS Tracking – eRUC – Job Management – eLogbook

David Rogers started Kainui Contracting with this Mercedes-Benz Arocs in January 2019 and has rapidly built the company fleet up to seven units.

T’S NOT UNCOMMON TO HEAR THE ROAD TRANSPORT industry signalling it has a shortage of young talent. And there are various schemes to attract and support new blood. Here is a young company, with an enthusiastic 28-yearold at the helm and plenty of youth on the crew that has links to one of those industry initiatives.

Taupiri’s David Rogers and the fast-growing Kainui Contracting Ltd he founded in January 2019 is example of young guns who are literally delivering by the truckload.

David has featured on the pages of New Zealand Truck & Driver before, as a finalist in the 2016 RTANZ Young Truck Driver of the Year competition before stepping up to win the contest in 2017 and 2018.

David had just topped the national under-25 driving competition for the second time at Dunedin in late-2018 when Kainui Contracting Ltd was formed. Since then he’s grown the KCL operation from one to seven trucks and also manages up to 20 sub-contractors on a daily basis.

Currently the KCL rollcall is nine, with seven operators plus a part-time admin to assist David.

And David’s time behind the wheel is becoming rare – he estimates two days a month at best – as he concentrates on managing the business, building relationships and from time-totime he says laughing, “herding cats.”

He says his daily role is more akin to being a transport broker as KCL serves the cartage needs of both large and small clients.

And it’s a job he not only brings his own youthful enthusiasm to, but has also built a young team to help him deliver with five of KCLs operators being under 30.

“I don’t get to drive much anymore,” says David. “Running that volume of trucks, seven of our own, and anywhere between five and 20 sub-contractors on any day, I need to be on the ground managing it.

“I’m on the phone, behind the computer or out visiting sites ensuring nothing gets missed. I guess when you start missing stuff, that’s when you go broke really.

“In business you need to be pitching for the jobs or else you’re not going to be involved in that next project.

“Supplying the civil infrastructure sector is a key part of my business so I have be pretty active to make sure we are involved in the next stage. Because once a project is complete, it’s done; they won’t need us on that project again.”

KCL runs a fleet of 6x4 tippers with five wearing the threepointed star of Mercedes-Benz accompanied by single DAF and Volvo units.

With one exception KCL has bought new trucks through Keith Andrews Trucks in Hamilton or leased them from TR Group. The favoured choice of trailer for the primarily civil and bulk work are Transport & General (T&G) tipper bins.

KCLs home is in the shadow of Taupiri mountain, a strategic location for a transport company that primarily serves the wider Waikato region.

“I grew up in Taupiri and have lived here all my life,” says David as he begins the back story to the name of the company.

“Kainui Rd is where my parents’ farm has always been. I didn’t really want to go with a ‘generic last name transport company’ so I used Kainui and we’ve been able to incorporate some quite cool