Highway investment a Budget highlight

IWAS PLEASED TO SEE THE GOVERNMENT at least attempt to address roading resilience in this year’s Budget. With severe weather events becoming more frequent and roads being the vital links between our communities, it is absolutely critical we increase investment in roading to make sure it is as resilient as possible.

This year’s Budget includes $279 million of funding specifically to improve the resilience of the state highway network, namely through slip prevention, slope stabilisation, flood mitigation and lessening the impact of sea level rise. This is on top of the $71 billion set aside for broader infrastructure upgrades over the next five years and the $475 million dedicated to rebuild road and rail links following the storms and cyclones that impacted the North Island. Some of the projects earmarked for the $279 million include:

• Northland – Addressing high priority land instability and subsidence issues including State Highway 1 Longhill and State Highway 12 north of Waipoua Forest.

• Auckland – Upgrades to pumping stations in Mt Wellington and Pukekohe to help prevent the motorways from flooding.

• Bay of Plenty – Rockfall protection at Ruahihi Bluff on State Highway 29.

• Waikato – Constructing a retaining wall to prevent the risk of a slip and improve drainage at State Highway 1 Bulli Point.

• Taranaki – Addressing coastal flooding issues for State Highway 3 including Tongaporutu Estuary and the Monhakatino Bridge.

• Wellington – Rockfall protection on State Highway 59.

• Nelson, Tasman and Marlborough – Providing upgrades for route security including State Highway 6 Whangamoa and Rai Saddle and Dashwood on State Highway 1.

• Canter bury – Debris clearing in water channels on State Highway 79 and 1 to better manage water flows.

• West Coast – Addressing landslip, drainage and river erosion issues including high priority coastal erosion and coastal flooding sites along State Highway 6 and improvements at Meybille Bay (SH6) and the Candys Bend on SH73.

• O tago and Southland – Addressing flooding issues such as on State Highway 1 Kakanui Straight and the growing coastal flooding risk at Ocean View, north of Bluff, securing access for the township and the Port.

While I congratulate the Government on recognising the importance of future proofing our state highways, recent history tempers my enthusiasm for these announcements somewhat. We know that promises don’t necessarily translate into completed projects. I am also well aware there is much more to do as part of the State Highway Resilience Plan and yet we don’t really know how Government plans to deliver on it.

Where is the workforce coming from and does the l will exist across our political parties to ensure that planned projects and investments survive the election cycle and the whims of some of our more ideologically motivated politicians?

Another Budget 2023 initiative I’m also extremely supportive of is the new fund to provide grants towards the purchase of low emissions heavy vehicles. According to the announcement, this could be trucks, heavy vans and non-public transport buses. It is hoped the $30 million fund over three years will see 500 low emission heavy vehicles hit the road in New Zealand. While this is obviously a drop in the bucket, it’s an acknowledgement from Government that the transport industry requires support to transition to low-emission vehicles. It also fits within the provisions of our Green Compact, which is our roadmap for decarbonising commercial road transport by 2050. For more on the Green Compact please visit https://www.transporting.nz/news/transportingnew-zealands-green-compact-our-decarbonisation-framework.

Could roadside drug testing have gone ahead?

Transporting New Zealand is a leading advocate for roadside drug testing, which is why we were so disappointed when the Government’s planned rollout was cancelled back in March.

We were told that the saliva-based tests required were not available as they didn’t accurately measure impairment, rather just the presence of drugs in a driver’s system. This apparently, was not good enough, and while officials knew about the issue last year, we were only told about it at the beginning of March.

Police Association President Chris Cahill subsequently criticised the Government for this in the media, and frankly, I completely agree with him. I do not consider holding back such information is a good way for Government to operate. As soon as it was known that the recentlypassed legislation could not be satisfied by the tests currently on the market that should have been communicated.

Cahill also makes the very valid point that if the problems sourcing the tests were disclosed earlier then the legislation could have been amended and a ‘plan-b’ option implemented. He suggests this could have allowed use of existing testing technology to detect the presence of drugs and then a blood test could be used to measure impairment. This is similar to the regime used across the Tasman, and if it is good enough for Australia then, I ask, why isn’t it good enough for us?

The decision to cancel roadside drug testing was not only a missed opportunity to make our roads safer and protect the lives of road users but has also further eroded trust in our public sector institutions to actually follow through on promises with action. Professional truck drivers, who regularly undergo workplace drug testing themselves, are exposed to the dangerous and drugged driving of other motorists on a daily basis. Surely, we owe it to them to make sure their workplace is as safe as possible and in that regards I feel the Government has let them down.

In the meantime, Transporting New Zealand is doing our bit to manage the risk of impaired driving with our involvement in the trial of a cognitive performance test as a key element of an alternative fatigue management plan. You can expect to hear more about that over the next few months.

New cost model to assist transport operators

I don’t know about you, but I am sick of the perception that our industry is in a constant race-to-the-bottom. In 2023 I don’t think it is at all true anymore but, like mud, the accusation has stuck, so we must address it.

The only way we can do that is to create the environment where trucking operators can drive successful, profitable and sustainable businesses. Which is why Transporting New Zealand has recently launched our Transporting New Zealand Cost Model for use by our members. The tool is designed to help business owners assess profitability by using their most recent annual profit & loss statement data as well as the most recent actual costs incurred. The tool then breaks that information down, helping them understand:

• those areas of their business that are not performing to their best;

• areas where cost reductions can be made;

• a total picture of the financial performance of your business;

• the effects when the data for one or more components is amended;

• comparisons of their financial performance, in percentage terms; with those contained in the Grant Thornton Index (GTI).

Previously, members provided data to our Regional and Sector Advisors who used a cost model to advise them on their rates. This approach often required advisors to fill in gaps on costs. The new Cost Model is significantly different. Instead of taking information and calculating and advising members on their rates, we are empowering operators to manage and determine their respective costs and charge out rates themselves.

Transporting New Zealand members will have free access to the model. If you have any further questions, please contact one of our regional and sector advisors. T&D

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HERE ARE NO HARD AND FAST RULES, BUT TYPICALLY A transport company that has been in business for just over 18 months won’t have the back story suitable for a New Zealand Truck & Driver Fleet Focus.

But Tauranga-based Nupin Transport, established in October 2021, isn’t really a new kid on the block. This is the story of a well-known brand name returning to the transport industry and a trucking background for owners Glen and Barry Raymond that began during their childhood.

The brothers grew up at the time when Keith Nicholson and their late father Colin Raymond owned Nupin Distributors. The company was well-known in the 1980s and early 1990s for its predominantly Kenworth fleet and distinctive blue livery.

Nupin Distributors had been founded on trucking newspapers and magazines to tight delivery deadlines and later evolved into other transport sectors, in particular carting steel from the Waiuku mill.

“We had about 18 trucks at the end. We had built up quite an operation,” says Barry.

When the company was sold to Jim Barker’s expanding Freight Lines operation in 1995, Barry stayed with the company and went on to be the Freight Lines CEO for 13 years.

The Nupin Distributors name and its original Transport Services License still remain active within Bulk Lines. It’s three generations of family history that connects Nupin Distribution to Nupin Transport.

Transport veteran Keith Nicholson tells an entertaining yarn about purchasing Nupin Distributors from its founder Jim Radcliff.

“The guy we bought it off, Jim Radcliff, used to be a commercial cleaner. He used to clean the NZ Truth [newspaper] building in Wellington,” says Keith.

“They used to print the Truth and put it on the rail up to Auckland. Then the rail rang up one day and cancelled that service, so they had to find another way to get it to Auckland.”

Keith reckons that in the process of cleaning the Truth offices, Radcliff knew the details of quotes and costs for getting the paper to Auckland. He put in a bid of his own, which he subsequently won, and Nupin Distributors was founded in 1961.

“That’s how he got the job. He had some bucket of crap trucks, but in those days, you couldn’t buy much that was decent, so you’d buy something, change the motor, change the gearbox and so on and make it work,” says Keith.

It was around 1981 when Keith noticed an interesting Business For Sale ad in the newspaper and began the process of finding out more about the opportunity.

“I reckon I was about 31-ish then, and I’m 74 now,” says Keith. The first potential partner Keith sought in buying the business was immediately told by his wife `no bloody way, you’ll never be at home’.

Keith then approached Colin Raymond, who he knew from the Auckland fruit and vegetable markets.

“I had been carting vegies out of the markets to the shops around Auckland,” says Keith.

“I can’t remember how much we paid for it. It was two or three hundred grand, a lot of money back in those days.”

“When we bought the business, we had three trucks and two drivers. One came up from Wellington on Saturday night with the Sunday papers. We went like hell and stopped in Turangi, Taupo, and Hamilton dropping off a few papers.

Above and right hand page: Nupin Distributors ran a predominantly Kenworth fleet in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Below: Nupin Transport has recently widened its operations to include flat deck work with a 2009 model Kenworth T408.

Right hand page (lower): The Nupin Transport logo modernises the original Nupin Distributors graphic… Keith Nicholson with The Legacy.

“I ended up doing it quite a bit and you’d get to Auckland and there’d be 50 cars lined up down the street. As soon as the covers came off everyone was grabbing their bundles, just like army ants.

“The first driver would go to the airport Sunday afternoon, park up the truck and would fly home.

“The other two came up Monday night with the Truth, one dropping off on the way and the other one going direct to Auckland. On Tuesday we would cart The Listener and Women’s Weekly back to Wellington.”

The Gordon & Gotch news distribution company was the main client and Nupin Distributors used to cart the bundled newspapers and magazines under tarps.

“Business-wise we just worked day and night. You could get away with murder in those days,” says Keith.

“We built it on service and work. That’s how you made it happen.”

The business soon developed other areas of operation.

“Before [buying Nupin] we had worked at the markets in Auckland, and we knew everybody there. Next thing we were doing a bit of vegies here and there to the shops around Auckland.

“Then one day somebody said to Colin, `the steel mill wants a bit of steel carted’.

“Colin went out to see them and they had about 10-ton. It was painted coils of steel to be used for roofing that was being sent to Wellington by train.

“But when the train got to Hamilton, they put them over the hump to make up the trains to go south. When the wagons bumped into each other, the coils rolled forward a bit, and your nice new roof was buggered.

“We picked it up and delivered it the next day and they thought it was magic. So, they rang Colin and asked “do have any more trucks?

“In those days, guys in Wellington who wanted to get 10 tons of steel plate had to order it three months in advance. We had it there the next morning.”

The steel cartage became a major part of Nupin Distributors workload with 10 trucks dedicated to the work at its peak.

In 1993 New Zealand Rail was privatised by the National government.

“What killed it for us was the rail went to the steel mill and said `the bigger your tonnage, the bigger your discount’,” says Keith.

“The amount of steel we were carting was enough to put them into the bigger discount bracket. So, they took the job off us.

“We had 10 trucks working on the steel and it was probably 95% of our business. All of sudden we needed 100 ton of freight a day, six days a week to survive. Where do you get that at a decent rate?

Nupin had developed a close working relationship with Jim Barker’s Freight Lines, recently established in 1993.

“Freight Lines used to do our South Island work and we built up quite a relationship with them. I ran the Auckland side for them, and I was really working for both companies,” says Barry.

“Jim said he was expanding, and he bought us out. Dad and Keith decided there was money on the table, and they took it.”

Glen and Barry had grown up around the Nupin business, worked there while at school and joined the company after both gaining trades outside of the transport industry as a back stop.

“We used to get sent down to Wellington in the school holidays to help Keith deliver the papers with an old J1 Bedford,” says Barry.

And Colin Raymond made sure his sons got a hands-on education about the industry.

“Dad taught us about driving and tarping. We used to love washing the trucks,” says Glen.

“He used to park the truck at the end of the road and the old man would say `go and get that tractor unit and bring it up here to wash’.

“We would run like hell across the paddock, wind the legs down and unhook it. We were only at school, and we couldn’t change gear, but the day we did we couldn’t stop and we missed the