It’s political... WHAT THE POLITICIANS THINK ABOUT TRUCKING THE NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING INDUSTRY FACES many challenges – many of them influenced by Government policy. Apart from the many problems currently created by the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s the ongoing driver shortage, the worsening state of the nation’s roading network and looming emissions reduction legislation… So, who among our political parties offers any salvation
for the industry in these situations? To have some insight into what politicians are thinking about issues impacting the road transport industry, NZ Truck & Driver has offered each of the major political parties the opportunity to voice their views on trucking matters each month. This month ACT and the National Party have taken the opportunity to present their views. T&D
Wasted journey By Simon Court, ACT Party spokesperson on transport
SOMETIMES YOU COME ACROSS Government initiatives that you swear must be satirical. Some of them would even be funny if they weren’t generally paid for by truckloads of taxpayer cash. One of the most outlandish out there has to be the New Zealand Transport Agency’s ‘Journey Planner’ though – a poor rip-off of Google Maps funded by Kiwi taxpayers. Yes that’s correct, seventeen years af ter Google released Google Maps, New Zealand’s transport agency has boldly decided to copy it with Journey Planner, a tool to map people’s journeys and alert them to possible disruptions, at great expense to New Zealand’s taxpayers. Information obtained by ACT via parliamentary questions shows the Government’s ill thought out venture into online route planning sunk $1m into development, a further $700k on website maintenance and improvements, and almost half a million on marketing their clunky map. These are just the costs so far with marketing expected to cost another million bucks over the next two years. I asked the Minister of Transport what the point of this was and he steadfastly stood by his department’s product. This is the sort of waste and poor prioritisation that Kiwis can’t stand. The New Zealand Transport Agency should stop wasting taxpayers’ money trying
to create their own bargain bin Google Maps and worry about fixing roads instead. What’s even worse is that Journey Planner is only accessible via phone or laptop. That’s not very helpful when you’re driving and it is illegal to use either device. When I asked the Minister in Parliament about this his solution was to get a passenger to use it for you. I suspect people will just use the vastly superior versions that can be used on their vehicle’s monitor or via handsfree instead. This is yet another reminder of why the Government shouldn’t waste taxpayers’ money trying to compete with the private sector. More of ten than not they fail miserably and they’re wasting Kiwis’ money during a cost of living crisis. It is truly baffling that at no point the Minister asked the question why are we trying to create something that already exists? The failed Journey Planner experiment needs to be scrapped and not another cent should be spent on it. People are just going to use Google Maps or Apple Maps anyway. With inflation pressuring Kiwis from the pump to the checkout, we cannot afford this kind of waste. This disaster might be at the small end of the scale when compared to things like the light rail saga, but it speaks to why we need to get politicians out of transport and
Simon Court
infrastructure decision-making to get better long-term outcomes. ACT would take the politics out of transport and infrastructure and get central and local government working together through 30-year infrastructure partnerships, devolving revenue and responsibility to regional governments and the private sector, while strengthening accountability and oversight from central government. The focus would be on creating infrastructure where it is needed, not where votes are and not mucking around with pet projects that aren’t providing a good return on investment. And yes, that means not trying to create our own version of Google Maps. T&D Truck & Driver | 85
