Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand

The recent RTF Conference at Wairakei Resort, near Taupō, gave me an opportunity to catch up with delegates from all over the country.
It was a really good chance to hear about what is challenging them in their businesses. These chats are important for me, as a lot of the time I am in the Wellington bubble, lobbying government.
I am conscious of regularly being in touch with what is affecting operators in the regions, and I travel as much as I can to ensure that.
The overall impression I got was that the industry is in good heart, but we face some challenges: The economic and political climate are uncertain and there is understandable concern at the goings-on at the N...

The average age of truck drivers in New Zealand is 54, which means that over the next 10-15 years we can expect a significant proportion of our workforce to retire.
This alone presents one of our industry's biggest risks and is something that the RTF, its associations and many operators are grappling with.
The answer is to employ more young people to fill the gaps. The 22–39-year age group, known to most of us as The Millennials, will be 75% of NZ's workforce in a decade.
By necessity, they will have to be a big part of the road transport industry. However, we're struggling to attract them, especially millennial women. As generational recruitment and leadership e...

For operators who use and benefit from RTF's quarterly Road Transport Cost Index, it's time to help your industry out by participating in the online cost comparison survey necessary for the future reliability of the Index.
"Every few years it is necessary for us to update the information the Index is based on to ascertain operator costs on a regional, sector and size basis," says RTF technical manager Kerry Arnold.
"It is absolutely critical to the accuracy of the Index over the next four to five years that as many people as possible complete the survey."
Usually the survey is conducted every five years, but it has been brought forward slightly, "because the market move...

RTF has joined forces with the NZ Trucking Association and TR Group to bring back the NZ Truck Driving Championship for 2020.
The competition, which until 2018 ran with a series of heats and a final held alongside the RTF Conference, has undergone a format change in 2020.
"RTF's associations were finding it increasingly difficult to stage the heats that were fundamental to how the competition ran before," says RTF's Nick Leggett.
"It was therefore decided to change things up to relieve the associations from this burden and make the competition more exciting and sustainable into the future."
The new format will see the competition take place as part of the TMC Trai...

How many times have you witnessed someone rush across a railway level-crossing to beat the barrier arms coming down, or impatiently drive across railway tracks after the lights and bells have started to warn of an oncoming train?
It can be harrowing to watch, yet unfortunately, it's actually a pretty common occurrence around New Zealand and is of increasing concern to KiwiRail and rail safety advocates TrackSafe NZ.
This year's Rail Safety Week campaign reflected this concern by focusing attention on near-misses with people and trains and the stress and trauma that those near-misses create for train drivers and those who witness them.
On average, a train driver suffers ...