“Out with the old and in with the new,”is how chief executive Nick Leggett describes the rebranding of the industry’s leading advocacy organsation – from the Road Transport Forum to Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand.

“In 2019, we did extensive research on what road freight transport means to NZers and how they view the service the industry provides, the vehicles we use and the people involved in freight and logistics,” says Leggett. 

“Encouragingly, NZers have a generally favourable view of trucks and understand their critical role in the economy.

“We feel Transporting New Zealand far better reflects how people perceive our industry, the fact that road transport is a significant contributor to growth in the economy, and having the verb ‘transporting’ in the name shows the action and movement that are part of our 24/7 operations.”

The new logo has been designed so that the arrows represent the North Island and South Island and the vital road links within and between them.

Ia Ara Aotearoa can be translated as “each and every road of Aotearoa.” The word “Ia” is also translated as a vessel or vein – likening the vehicles used to transport the “goods” to the very important role of the veins of a human body. 

“Ia” can also mean to flow, like the flow of movement of a river – again, similar to the flow of freight around the country.

As Leggett explains, Transporting New Zealand had hoped to show off the rebrand at a launch event organised at Parliament, but this was cancelled due to the latest COVID-19 lockdown. 

“Unfortunately, COVID-19 has little respect for events and it was just too hard in such an uncertain climate to reschedule. 

“Regardless, we know that Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand will be a brand that reflects a modern, forward-looking industry that is, every day, taking on its challenges; whether that be operating during lockdown, navigating our inadequate roading network, or consistently delivering the goods on time.” 

Right now, says Leggett, it is hard to consider any future without COVID-19 as a major part of it. NZ, he adds, “must start building up our psychological, physical, social and economic resilience to live with it. 

“COVID-19, whether it’s Delta or other future strains, is not going away. NZ may get back to a situation where we have no community cases but in the medium to long term, the world will never eliminate it and most other developed countries have accepted that.

“The slow nature of the vaccine rollout and the lack of planning and preparation in our health system has left us pretty badly exposed, hence Level 4. However, lockdowns are not a sustainable method of control. We must vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate – and look to provide boosters when we need to. We cannot as a country stay closed forever and we need to do a lot more to protect ourselves for when we do open up.

“A big thankyou to all the essential workers in our industry who have kept the freight moving over the last month or so. We all owe you a big pat on the back,” Leggett concludes.

Finally, there’s been another casualty of the current Delta incursion – The Road Ahead: Transporting New Zealand Conference.

Says Leggett: “With so much unpredicatability surrounding what the alert levels may be in different parts of the country the Transporting New Zealand board was forced to make a call in order to provide the industry, event hosts and event providers with some certainty. Registered delegates will be contacted by Transporting New Zealand.”