Transporting New Zealand

THE NEED TO PRIORITISE FREIGHT

If Covid-19 has taught us anything, it’s that New Zealand needs to get much better at prioritising the movement of freight during a time of crisis.

The world has been living with Covid-19 since February 2020, and it’s obvious we’re going to have to find permanent ways to deal with the disruptions it will continue to cause.

The disrupted supply of goods from overseas is having a huge impact on New Zealand businesses, as is closing the border to all but the lucky few who win the MIQ lottery. Shortages are only going to get worse – raw materials, parts and assembled products, foods we don’t produce here, and there is a scarcity of workers and the skills and knowledge needed to grow our economy.

As if all this wasn’t enough, our industry was hit with the fairly staggering news that two of the three Interislander ferries were being taken out of action in September.

The Kaiarahi was diagnosed with gearbox problems and was put out of service, and the Aratere had to go to Sydney for drydock work, expected to take at least a fortnight.

KiwiRail had a loadsharing arrangement with Bluebridge’s Strait Shipping to manage capacity, and we were assured freight would continue to flow, but this was the last thing the transport industry needed during a lockdown.

New Zealand’s supply chains are already under strain due to a combination of domestic and international factors.

I recently met with Minister of Transport Michael Wood and KiwiRail chief executive Greg Miller to discuss how removing two ships from the freight system at a time of national stress would compound our supply chain problem.

Unfortunately, I did not receive a satisfactory explanation from Miller.

I only wish KiwiRail and the government had done a bit more forward planning into the operations of Interislander because the consequence of having these two ferries out of action was to slow down the economy further. After all, Interislander and KiwiRail are owned by the government.

Supply chain issues were further compounded when Dr Ashley Bloomfield decreed that essential workers, including truck drivers, crossing the level-4 Auckland border needed to have had a Covid-19 test within the previous seven days. This came as a complete surprise as there had been no consultation with the industry before the go-ahead was given to implement it.

We have no issue with Covid-19 testing per se, but we weren’t happy with being blindsided by law changes on the fly with no explanation of how they are supposed to work.

Understandably, there was a lot of stress among drivers and operators – a new testing regime was coming into force, with spot-testing to begin, but absolutely no word from the government on how this would work on the ground. There was also no information on how to prove testing had taken place. Even the police were left scratching their heads about how they would enforce this and how they would actually deal with having to turn trucks around if a driver could not prove a recent test.

If we had been consulted on this testing requirement, we could have developed a plan that provided what the government was asking for in a way that resulted in the least possible disruption to the supply chain. Unfortunately, the current government seems determined to ignore the very industry that enables the country to keep running.

Covid-19 will be with us for the foreseeable future, which means we need a government that listens to the needs of the private sector and is willing to work with us to help solve the problems associated with the virus and its impacts.

Nick Leggett chief executive officer Most in the industry will be aware by now of the departure of OCANZ (Owner Carriers Association of New Zealand) members National Road Carriers and the NZ Trucking Association from Transporting New Zealand. I want to assure transport operators and RTANZ members that Transporting New Zealand remains hard at work representing the industry and advocating for transport operator’s interests in Wellington.

I know many of you, like me, had hoped for greater consolidation of our various associations into one entity to represent New Zealand road transport operators. This would have provided us with one unified voice would undoubtedly be the best model to represent the industry on a national level while avoiding the current duplication of resources. However, National Road Carriers and the NZ Trucking Association have decided to go their own way.

Transporting New Zealand and our four Road Transport Association member associations will be taking the opportunity to refresh our services and make sure the advocacy we provide on a national level continues to evolve and remain relevant to transport operators.

There are interesting times ahead and a strong voice in Wellington will be more important than ever.