A missed opportunity on congestion charging 

Congestion charging legislation has passed another hurdle, with the cross-party Transport and Infrastructure Select Committee recommending only minor changes to the draft legislation.  

While it’s good to see a bipartisan approach being taken to major transport reform, it’s frustrating to see there will be no ability for schemes to exempt or discount freight vehicles from congestion charges. Nor will there be a requirement for freight considerations to be taken into account during scheme design.  

This will undermine the cost savings these schemes are supposed to offer families and businesses. International experience in London and New York shows the expense and inconvenience poorly designed schemes impose on freight operators, who face inelastic demand from freight customers.

I find it frustrating that there is a lack of appreciation that trucks routinely travel at times not because it’s when they want to be moving, but it’s what they need to do to meet customer demand. Furthermore, there’s a growing disconnect between customer expectations and their willingness to pay any increased costs. I can see this leading to further pressure on rates and increased “low-balling” across the industry.  

This will make it more difficult for Transporting New Zealand to support the individual schemes enabled by the legislation – with Auckland being the most likely contender. However, we remain committed to assessing individual schemes on their merits, factoring in the views of our membership.  

Our efforts to achieve practical changes to the legislation were derailed by the road freight industry’s divided stance on the issue. Transporting New Zealand repeatedly attempted to consult with the other two national freight associations to agree an industry position, but were unsuccessful.  

This was doubly disappointing as Transporting New Zealand had commissioned a national freight survey on the issue to help build a mandate and had clearly signalled our position for months. Our submission included a thorough review of the draft legislation and examined how overseas schemes had been implemented. 

The result was two national industry bodies appearing before select committee, back-to-back, providing conflicting recommendations to the cross-party Select Committee. I had no idea what recommendations were going to follow ours. Incredibly unhelpful to the MPs and their officials trying to determine an industry position. Incredibly unhelpful for road freight businesses and customers.

To paraphrase our Board Chair, Cam Bagrie, this would have been an ideal issue to leave the rugby-shirts at the door for and provide unified recommendations from the road freight industry. With universal RUC, tolling and regulatory reform all on the horizon, our three industry associations can either strengthen the voice of our sector, or undermine it.  

The London Congestion Charge was introduced in 2003. 

New York's Central Business District Tolling Program began in January of this year.

IRD data indicative of financial strain

Our National Road Freight Survey earlier this year found that just 27 per cent of responding transport businesses said they had sustainable operating margins. Given this, it was not a big surprise to see that of 7,000 businesses whose main area of work is road freight transport, one in five of them have debt with Inland Revenue. The average debt is about $25,000. 

We’ll be working with IRD to share insights from its audits and give advice on what operators can do to avoid getting in trouble and how we can help when things are tough. 

In the meantime, to help our members better manage their finances, I’m pleased to say we’ve been able to reduce the lag between the end of the previous quarter and us providing the latest Grant Thornton Transport Cost Index by four weeks.

We’ve reduced the lag by adjusting the diesel pricing measure used, improving what is already an industry benchmark. Thanks to the members who provided feedback and assisted with the latest re-basing of the Cost Index.  

If you’re a member you can access the Cost Index here. Non-members can buy an annual subscription here.

Celebrating success

Regardless of the tough times, one great thing I love about our industry is that there is still a tremendous amount of really good stuff happening across all parts of it.

The 2025 Transporting New Zealand North Island Seminar Industry Awards dinner on Saturday 11 October will celebrate individuals and organisations that have made exceptional contributions to the road transport sector through innovation, safety, industry awareness, and training. 

Open to North Island-based nominees, the awards recognise efforts that improve industry standards, workplace environments, and public perception of the transport sector. 

🏅 VTNZ Supreme Contribution to New Zealand Road Freight Transport

🏅 EROAD Outstanding Contribution to Health and Safety

🏅 MITO Outstanding Contribution to Training

🏅 Fruehauf Outstanding Contribution to Innovation

🏅 EROAD Young Driver Award

🏅 Women in Road Freight Transport 

If you’re aware of exceptional stuff that you think should be celebrated, make a nomination here.

Submissions close  Sunday 14 September 2025. 

Dom Kalasih, Chief executive of Transporting New Zealand