Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand

The lack of charging facilities and support infrastructure is one of the biggest barriers to the adoption of electric vehicles – in particular electric trucks – in New Zealand. 

So I was pleased to see a battery-swapping station gain Government and industry support as part of the push to find solutions to heavy transport emissions.

The concept is pretty exciting: Etruck’s director Ross Linton plans to import a semi-robotic gantry from China that will be able to lift out and replace a two-and-a-half-tonne truck battery while you wait. 

This will not only result in electric trucks being able to keep running with minimal downtime, but also allow the batteries ...

Time is running out to register and organise your trip to The Road Ahead – 2021 Transporting New Zealand Conference in Invercargill on September 25 and 26. 

“Registration will remain open right until the last minute as we understand how difficult the COVID-19 environment makes planning ahead,” says RTF’s Nick Leggett. 

“The disruption caused by recent weather events and local disasters is also making life challenging for the industry so we want to give everyone the best opportunity possible to attend.

“We can guarantee those who make it to Invercargill will get great value from the diverse lineup of speakers and events we have organised. Like the rest of th...

Incredibly disappointed is the only way to describe how I feel about the Government’s recent announcement on the fate of roading projects in the

New Zealand Upgrade Programme.

Firstly, the good news is that the 24 kilometre highway from Otaki to north of Levin, costing around $817million, will be built as planned. Wellington’s Melling Interchange will also go ahead at a higher cost – now estimated at $420m, having been costed at $258m just a year ago.

The bad news from a road transport point of view is that the Mill Road project in Auckland will not go ahead – due to reprioritisation and concern over future transport emissions. 

This again proves the Gover...

There’s nothing like seeing a bunch of Kiwi athletes with some nice, shiny medals at an Olympic Games.

After all the hard work, all the physical and emotional endurance, all the support of friends and families, it’s a magical thing. Even to get to the Olympics is such an enormous achievement.

Back on the less elevated level of day-to-day life, our industry has been having some decent wins, and business as usual continues at pace.

Late July we had an historic day at our organisation with the Board formally adopting a new constitution and governance structure.

The new constitution introduces a single national membership structure, supported by r...

The state of the economy is top of mind this month, following the delivery of the budget by the coalition government on May 30. The government says it can turn around the economy. We hope it is right, and we will see some positive changes happening soon.

Stress on the rise for operators

Right now, however, it is clear that we are facing tough economic times, as predicted, and unfortunately this is impacting the road transport industry in particular.

A major player went into liquidation recently with absolutely no warning. A recent report in Stuff described how the transport industry is leading the statistics for insolvencies – disqu...