I’ve sat in a lot of transport conferences. Few have felt like something actually shifted in the room. Aka Raupapa, the inaugural Freight & Supply Chain Superhui, held at the University of Waikato this week and hosted by Tainui Group Holdings, was one of them.

I was proud to serve on the advisory panel that helped bring this event to life, and to take part on the panel “Reimagining New Zealand’s Supply Chain,” alongside leaders from KiwiRail, Talley’s and Woolworths NZ. But the real story wasn’t who was on stage. It was who was in the room: chief executives from our ports, rail and major exporters, sitting alongside the Minister of Transport, the Infrastructure Commission and Waikato-Tainui, all talking about how to drive better supply chain efficiency. 

And here’s the thing; we all agreed on the important stuff. Not on everything, but on the big call: there is a huge opportunity sitting in front of us to lift freight task productivity if we collaborate and co-ordinate across the sector instead of working in silos. Government has a clear role too – providing the strategic direction to decide where investment in our key freight nodes and transport infrastructure should go. 

On the panel, I spoke to three themes I’ll unpack properly over the coming weeks: the future of our workforce, what the Australian Logistics Council can teach us about how our own Freight Advisory Council can help step-change supply chain performance, and why shared intermodal data is a critical foundation to success. Watch this space. 

For now, one thank you, to Dave Christie, Supply Chain Strategy Director at Tainui Group Holdings who drove this event from concept to reality. Dave, you gave our sector a genuinely shared table and built a positive consensus in the room to take action. 

Aka Raupapa shouldn’t be a one-off. It should be the first of many. Let’s make it an annual fixture. 

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