Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand

Firstly, I want to further reflect on the nationwide operator survey we undertook back in June and the encouraging signs of our industry’s increasing competitiveness in the labour market.

Eighty per cent of the 400 operators who responded had increased pay for their drivers over the last year with more than half having increased wages by at least 6%. The median hourly wage for our industry has moved from around $26 per hour from in March 2020 to over $31 per hour in 2022. There has also been a threefold increase in professional drivers being paid between $33 and $40 per hour.

Transporting New Zealand has shared our survey results publicly because we see it as an important ...

We are delighted the Government has heeded the call from Transporting New Zealand to extend fuel tax discounts and the reduction in road user charges (RUC) until early next year. It’s a good win and it shows our association is a proven and effective voice for our industry. 

In recent weeks we had written to the minister and spoken with officials and media about the need to extend the RUC discount. Our recent survey showed that 96% of the industry supported our move to secure the extension, and over 40% of transport businesses said that their costs would be eased by the continuation of the road user charge discount. 

Road transport is massively impacted by the cos...

It is with some considerable relief to learn that the Government has decided to roll over the temporary reduction in fuel excise and RUCs until January 2023. One look at the state of the economy and the rising cost of living clearly shows that the last thing kiwis could afford was a 25-cent jump in petrol prices and a 36 percent hike in RUC rates.

Since June Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand has been publicly advocating for an extension to the RUC and fuel excise reduction and I am pleased that the Government has listened and chosen not to impose this further cost pressure on families and businesses. Many kiwis are only just keeping their heads above water as it is. ...

Recent population data released by Statistics New Zealand should have made all employers in this country stand up and notice, including road transport operators. 

A couple of headline figures we should all be concerned about are that during the last year New Zealand’s working age population shrank by 0.2 percent, with a massive 3.1 percent reduction in the number of people in their 20s. The number of 20 to 39-year-olds was down 0.7 percent and those aged 25 to 29 dropped a whopping 4 percent.

All this was in the year up to March 2022, a year where the borders were mostly closed and there was heightened uncertainty around international travel. Now that borders have reo...

Livestock transport has always been a hard business. The work is stressful, the animal welfare responsibilities huge and the margins often very tight. Traditionally, livestock operators have also had the thin end of the wedge when it comes to the chain of responsibility – much of it falling on the poor old truckie.

Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand is seeking to change this situation and is working through our sector group, the National Livestock Transport & Safety Group, to spread the load across the whole supply chain and address some of the key challenges and risks faced by operators.

The proposal, which the industry has spent the last year-or-so formulating, is ...