What you’re telling us

and businesses, as last month’s Radiator showed so vividly. I hope all those affected are adequately insured and have helpful insurance companies. No wonder the new PM exclaimed, “What’s next, a plague of locusts?”.

Roading a priority

Waka Kotahi's roading programme will need quite some adjustment over the coming years, maybe to the timing, or indeed the priority of projects. They have struggled in recent years to even keep up with the huge backlog in maintenance, with some regions (Taranaki, for example) having most lane kilometres of our highways close to, or at, the end of their predicted life. The cut to maintenance funding. together with the increase in heavy truck weights around a decade ago, is really showing up now. This, coupled with the congestion caused by more and more cars and kilometres driven, plus the severe climate effects that have become obvious over the past few years, have put real pressure on Waka Kotahi, our engineers and contractors, and the funding needed to get infrastructure (especially roading) back to at least ‘developed country’ status. The last couple of months should be a warning to all political parties that the most stupid policy possible would be to cut taxes and not spend additional money on infrastructure. The present Government has worked to devise a solution to fix and modernise water supplies (talked about for several years before them, too) but what about the other ‘big elephant in the room?’. Highway and local bridges are mostly over 50 years old in many parts of the country, and what volumes of traffic and gross weights were they designed for? The majority of trucks were less than 20 tonnes back then.

What should NZ Inc. do?

A good example is Denmark, around 5 million people too, as it happens. In the early 1980s the Danes set about a major longterm modernisation plan in all areas and especially transport. They have rebuilt major highways and railways, road and rail bridges and undersea tunnels (some several kilometres) linking all their main islands, replacing most of the huge ferries.

They have also invested heavily in electrification, being the world leader in wind power, with wind generators almost everywhere in the country, offshore wind-farms, solar panels on most homes and farms, electric car charging points, and bicycle, bus and (electrified) rail transport much more utilised than here. And the Danes have supported the politicians who have facilitated all this.

Every month we reply to members’ questions and comments drawn from conversations with the MTA team. Do you need advice or an answer on something? Radiator would love to hear from you. Email simon.bradwell@mta.org.nz.

“ We have heaps of old starters and alternators that are no longer serviceable. What is the best way of disposing of them? ”

One of the easiest ways to deal with these and reap some benefit is to keep a barrel/box that you can put all the scrap starters and alternators in. When it gets full get your apprentice to pull them apart, which is a great training exercise. Nothing like hands-on training for getting the apprentices to understand and come to terms with how to do this.

It can also be a good exercise in finding out why they weren’t working, and they can clean up the parts as they do it.

A silver lining to this is if the copper and aluminium components are cleaned and separated, they can be picked up by the recyclers, providing some extra dollars for the business.

“ When MTA does site reviews do they need to see staff’s contracts? ”

We need to ensure that our members are using employment agreements that comply with the latest employment regulations and laws. To do this we can either check the agreements themselves or the templates the member is using.

“I run a small panel shop but seem to have a huge amount of plastic waste, mostly bumpers, going to the rubbish tip. Are there any plans to have them recycled? ”

Members around the country have been voicing concern over this and MTA are currently working on a viable long-term NZ solution. We will have more information over the next 3-4 months

“Our Napier business made it through the floods fine but there is a lot of mental stress among staff. What MTA support is there available for them? ”

MTA is here to support businesses through times like this and your membership provides free access to the EAP service to assist staff. The number is 0800 327 669 and is completely confidential.

“Are MTA going to run any EV training courses and are there any that MTA endorse? ”

This is something MTA are currently working on and in the meantime, we endorse the MITO micro- credential and the L5 EV certificate.

“ We are fully staffed and have found the perfect balance.”

One staff member is full-time five days a week, another comes in for Thursdays and Fridays, and another is on call for when we need him. This works out perfectly as we’ve also stopped doing Saturday hours. It has made everyone at work a little happier.