International connections

Over the last 25 years or so, I’ve been involved in the International Forum for Heavy Vehicle Transport and Technology (HVTT), presenting papers at several of its symposia. I’ve also been a Board member for much of that time – so long I can hardly recall.  

The Board is well-represented by members across the globe, who share the duty of providing the monthly newsletter. September was my turn, so this week, I’m sharing it here too (slightly edited for brevity). 

Greetings HVTT family, from New Zealand

It seems an age since Quebec and HVTT18. I extend my thanks to Julien, Jonathan and the team at Université Laval for a fabulous symposium. In my role it’s easy to get swept along by the issues we face here, but I’ve always found the HVTT symposia are great in bringing a sense of reality to what’s happening internationally in research, technical development and policy areas.

To demonstrate the value HVTT brings, fellow Kiwis, Doug Latto and Mark Robilliard will join me to share their learnings and insights at the Institute of Road Transport Engineers of New Zealand biennial International Conference in November this year.  

We are a small nation, geographically a long way from the rest of the world, and while there was some commonality in the challenges I heard at HVTT18, there are quite big differences in managing them. 

Vehicles 

Most of our heavy trailers are made here, however for trucks (powered units) we rely mainly on European, US and Japanese manufacturers. My takeaways from HVTT18 are that apart from their use in relatively constrained environments, fully autonomous vehicles are still some ways away, as is significant progress decarbonizing the heavy fleet via alternative energy.  

With electrification, it was some consolation to see we aren’t the only nation facing challenges with heavy BEV axle weights. It was also good to see the trials and research of e-logging trucks in Sweden, as the small numbers brought some reality to a transition of any substance here in the short term. I found the discussion on providing electrical energy to e-trucks even more useful. I feel not enough quality discussion is taking place here in that regard.

While around 80-85% of New Zealand’s electricity generation is currently from renewable sources, we are reliant on fossil fuels for 99% of transport energy and around 60% of industrial energy. Therefore, from a decarbonisation strategy perspective, it makes sense to electrify our fleet.  

However, the impact on electrical energy production is quite startling. Over the last 25 years or so, electricity demand has grown about 14% – from about 35 TWh to 40 TWh (terawatt hours), with most of that growth occurring in the first third of that period. Forecasting undertaken by our Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment indicates that demand will grow between 53.6TWh and 72.1 TWh by 2050, an increase of between 34-80%.

That is a startling increase, particularly as only a few months ago, mainstream media was reporting an energy crisis and calling for urgent reform as New Zealand faces soaring costs and supply problems.  

While an electrical road system may not be a solution for New Zealand, the thinking and planning on charging infrastructure needs to be carefully considered. 

Infrastructure 

I was impressed by the amount of thinking and planning in North America to ensure there is logical and rational investment in road infrastructure, given the impacts of climate change.  

I was also fascinated by the increasing level of delays at seaports across many international jurisdictions. Based on overseas practice, over the last year or so some ports in New Zealand have been rolling out “Booking Fees” as a means of better managing congestion. If we are to avoid the long delays overseas, then a lot more strategic thinking and planning needs to occur here. 

Currently, a significant concern for roading is the length of our three-year government term. Right now, the Government is progressing one of the biggest transport and infrastructure programmes in decades. That includes Roads of National and Regional Significance, record levels of road maintenance investment, and critical revenue reform: a transition to universal Road User Charges, time-of-use charging, and updated tolling arrangements. These are long-term reforms and investments. They cannot be delivered within a single three-year term, and they are too important to be delayed, cancelled, or reset.  

However, the result of next year’s election is currently anyone’s guess. A poll last week showed the left and right blocks deadlocked on 60 seats each. This highlights the uncertainty our country is facing, posing a real risk for transport and infrastructure.  

The legislation enabling Time of Use charging to mitigate congestion is progressing. Our organisation pleaded a case that given freight demand is inflexible, congestion charges will not result in material changes in heavy vehicles travelling at peak times. Therefore, freight vehicles and public transport vehicles should be exempt from paying charges. Unfortunately, but not unsurprisingly, it’s been confirmed that freight vehicles will need to pay the charges. 

Drivers 

It was little consolation, but I heard and saw that we are not alone in facing our driver shortage challenges and the EU’s development was a fascinating additional complexity for Europe.  

We have faced similar but different challenges, with overseas drivers playing a significant role in addressing the shortage we faced a couple of years ago. As the economy has cooled, demand has subsided. Currently, our main issues include the English language test for migrant drivers and, where we have reciprocating recognition agreements in place, the reliance on overseas licenses as a good indicator of driver competency. 

Notwithstanding, our driver demand issue has only temporarily abated. Some recent work we commissioned showed that drivers aged 65+ now make up more than 10% of the workforce and therefore, succession issues are arising. 

High productivity vehicles 

The work shared by Loes Aarts and Tim Breemersch about progressing heavy vehicle productivity now being a “necessity” was insightful. Given there are so many economic, environmental, and social challenges now, this simply makes sense.

In June, our Minister of Transport committed to some dimension and mass rule reforms. I envisage that there will be a desire from our government officials to prove there are benefits from increased productivity. Our organisation will be working hard to convince officials to take the lead from overseas and follow something like European Modular Systems (EMS). 

Rugby and weather 

Our country’s long history of winning rugby matches, regardless of the international opposition, is fading. I can’t blame heavy vehicle issues for that but on the positive side, our hours of daylight are getting longer and the weather is getting warmer.