My message to members: We’re here for you

As I write this on 1 February, a State of Emergency was declared yesterday in Northland, following Auckland’s declaration some five days ago.

This morning, there is significant new flooding in Auckland, including motorway closures and repeat flooding of already damaged premises. In my own home, my basement flat was flooded a second time today. This has been an extreme weather event that has impacted MTA members, staff and communities.

Now there are also decisions to be made about the massive Cyclespot Westpac Charity Ride that Grant has planned for 19 February.

“Our plan for the charity ride was to have the building all cleaned out with no stock in it and all the people on the ride could come inside, we can’t do that now so our plan is to still have the facility and use all the carparking outside because the council will not allow anyone inside. “We will not drop it though; we still want to have it here and we have the support of the bike brands, they still want to recognise the charity and we have already got 600 people signed on for the ride, and we

I send my support to all members affected by this shocking event. Many of you will have experienced far worse effects than I have, and will be cleaning up and counting the cost for some time to come. I hope everyone’s family and friends are safe and unharmed. MTA staff have been working hard since the extent of the weather became apparent. We have initiatives in place around the following issues, and these will be further extended or modified as more information flows in the aftermath.

A response team is being led by Sean Stevens out of the Auckland campus, and includes the MTA Executive and staff together with outside experts.

• Bulletins will continue to flow, including basic safety and insurance instructions, as well as practical steps relating to flood damage, health and safety, and making an insurance claim, necessity to photograph evidence of damage and images of property needing to be disposed of urgently etc.

are praying it is great weather.”

Each day following the flood is throwing up challenges, but Grant says he is determined to be up and running as soon as possible and restocking the business will be a bit easier than it was a year ago, fingers crossed.

“The supply chain seems to be much better, fingers crossed it keeps improving,” he says. Hopefully there is half an acre of carpet out there somewhere.

“We still have the support of the bike brands, they still want to recognise the charity and we have already got 600 people signed on for the ride.”

• We have around 1,300 members in the region, and have been contacting them in priority depending on the local suburban damage level. At the time of writing, 112 have been contacted, with 28 suffering some damage, 12 of those severe. We expect the ratio of ‘severe’ to drop as we contact members in suburbs less severely affected.

• You will be aware MTA has a disaster response fund set aside to help members to navigate situations such as this, in general pertaining to individual members. Part of this response will be to fund the following specialised assistance and expertise at two levels:

1. At the ‘loss adjuster’ level to assist members make claims to the maximum legal level, and avoid missing out on claimable items through well-intended action.

2. An Auckland-based legal insurance expert, to provide MTA management with an oversight on processes recommended to members, and specific escalated advice as appropriate, or as any legal disputes develop.

• By the time you read this, we will have held webinars for members on the insurance claim process, and good practices.

• Of course, don’t forget that all our normal services around HR advice, dispute resolution and also the EAP (Employee Assistance Programme) for stress situations are constantly available.

• Looking forward, we have commenced dialogue with Waka Kotahi on how registered and unregistered vehicles are to be tracked as flood damaged, and we will be advising members involved in vehicle trade recommended actions and vigilance in this area. In addition, we are working on appropriate comms and discussions with marketplaces like TradeMe and auction houses, as well as brand owners, ultimately to avoid future member versus consumer issues with flood-damaged vehicles and parts.

While it is early days in terms of clarity around the number of MTA members affected, it is clear that the flood damage and resulting claims will be extensive. I would like to acknowledge all those in the MTA team, who have demonstrated pace and collaboration to support MTA members in what is and will continue for some time to be a challenging time for many. Please do not hesitate to contact our team if we can be of help to you in any way.

Bob Boniface President, MTA