Transporting New Zealand

It is hoped that a charter covering livestock transport will include the design of loading facilities, along with the condition of animals picked up from farms.

NEW CHARTER FOR LIVESTOCK TRANSPORT

by Nick Leggett Chief Executive

Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand

LIVESTOCK TRANSPORT HAS ALWAYS

been a hard business. The work is stressful, the animal welfare responsibilities huge and the margins often very tight. Traditionally, livestock operators have also had the thin end of the wedge when it comes to the chain of responsibility – much of it falling on the poor old truckie.

Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand is seeking to change this situation and is working through our sector group, the National Livestock Transport & Safety Group, to spread the load across the whole supply chain and address some of the key challenges and risks faced by operators.

The proposal, which the industry has spent the last yearor-so formulating, is for a charter that would identify that each stage of the supply chain needs to take responsibility for the safe and efficient transportation of livestock.

Far too much responsibility currently lies with transporters. What we are seeking is for each business to recognise that what they ask their customers to do, the rates they pay, and the conditions they set, have a direct impact on the safety and performance of other parts of the chain.

Long hours, stress, hard working conditions, animal welfare, traditionally poor rates of pay and low margins are all issues we want the charter to address. We also want to see timely and accurate communications, better pickup and drop-off facilities, and more obligations as to the condition of animals before they get on the truck.

A lot of background work has already been completed by the National Livestock Transport & Safety Group and I am really encouraged by the number of stakeholders that are keen to be involved. These include farmer representatives, meat processing companies, stock agents and the regulators (Ministry for Primary Industries, Waka Kotahi NZ

Transport Agency and WorkSafe NZ).

Federated Farmers have taken a real leadership position, having helped put the draft charter together. They realise that unless things improve it will ultimately be their members that are disadvantaged, particularly if they are unable to find sufficient transportation for their stock. I am also pleased that Waka Kotahi has agreed to chair the group that will hammer out some of the finer points of the charter.

If we are successful in this it won’t only be transport businesses that benefit from it. All those with an interest in the movement of livestock will be much clearer as to where responsibility lies and will understand their obligations. There will also likely be wider lessons for how chain of responsibility can be applied to other sectors of the road transport industry.

I know how frustrating it has been for those in our industry tasked with transporting freight across Cook Strait recently. Suffice to say, being unable to forward book trucks on ships and the general instability of ferry services was the last thing we needed while enduring an already stretched supply chain and labour force issues.

I met with the KiwiRail team back in April and expressed our industry’s frustrations. Unfortunately, issues of staff unavailability due to Covid and high freight demands combined with the loss of two ships has created a bit of a perfect storm and again points to the lack of resilience in our nationwide transport network at times of stress.

While short-term capacity issues are nothing new on Cook Strait what is concerning is that we could potentially face years of disruptions. New, larger ferries have been ordered but are not due until 2025 and 2026. We have some confidence however that capacity may be only a short term issue on the Strait.

The last thing we need in an already difficult economic climate is a long-term reduction in interisland freight movements as if you look ahead to next summer, when international tourism is back, there will be even greater pressure on our ferries.

Finally, I want to acknowledge the retirement of Transporting New Zealand’s Technical and Roading Manager Kerry Arnold. Many operators around the country will know of Kerry as I doubt there is anyone in or around the industry that possesses his depth of historical and technical knowledge.

For 35 years Kerry Arnold led our technical and policy teams. He represented the interests of the trucking sector with successive governments and countless transport officials to get the best possible solutions for operators.

Kerry’s inclusion in the NZ Road Transport Hall of Fame in 2017 along with the Institute of Road Transport Engineers of New Zealand Transport Award for Outstanding Industry Service in 2013 were well-deserved recognition for his contribution to our industry.

The advocacy and knowledge Kerry has provided to our membership will be greatly missed. We all wish him a very enjoyable and relaxing retirement. T&D

Kerry Arnold has served the industry in a technical and advocacy capacity for over 35 years.

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