This week Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown released his manifesto, Auckland, A City for Two Million. It opens with the line: “When Auckland succeeds, New Zealand succeeds.”

He has a point. Auckland makes up around 40 per cent of our economy. It is home to our largest import port, our main international airport, and the warehouses and distribution centres that supply the rest of the country. When Auckland’s freight network moves, New Zealand moves.

Freight is the lifeblood of the city. Some 93 per cent of freight leaving Auckland goes by road. Every new apartment, every hospital supply run, every supermarket shelf arrives on a truck. Behind each of those trucks is a driver up before dawn, threading a fully loaded rig through a city that keeps growing. Council’s own research found drivers take “a great deal of pride in the job they do to keep the economy moving”. Truck drivers are the workers who keep Auckland running.

The machinery to plan for that growth is now in place. Auckland Council has set up a new Directorate of Transport and Infrastructure, bringing transport strategy and delivery back under one roof. In September, Council retained the Regional Freight Transport Plan and its Strategic Freight Network. That is a solid foundation.

The manifesto talks about moving “people and goods across our region efficiently” and getting the most out of the existing network. Goods - one word, carrying a great deal of weight. Freight is five to eight per cent of trips in Auckland’s congested peaks. Congestion now costs the city an estimated $2.6 billion a year, up from $1 billion in 2019.

This is a golden opportunity to set Auckland up for growth with sensible freight planning. We want to see four things:

 - Measure it. Freight task performance measured, reported and optimised, with journey times and reliability on freight routes published as routinely as bus punctuality.

 - Protect it. The Strategic Freight Network maintained as the city densifies and road space is reallocated.

 - Involve us early. Industry at the table at concept and pre-design for the projects that will shape freight for decades: the additional harbour crossing, the Roads of National Significance, the Avondale–Southdown rail link, level crossing removals and Time of Use charging.

 - Set a goal. A strategic target for improving freight task performance as the city grows.

The Mayor wants Auckland in the room when the big decisions are made. Freight should be in the room when Auckland makes them.

If we are heading towards a population of two million people then let’s make sure the trucks that feed, build and supply them can still move.

Justin Tighe-Umbers, Chief Executive, National Road Carriers Assn