Friday night National Road Carriers held our 89th Annual General Meeting at the Jet Park Inn, gathering members, sponsors and supporters. There was a great atmosphere in the room, despite the tough year (or perhaps because of it) everyone enjoyed getting together and catching up over a drink. Making the occasion even more special was Dennis Errey receiving an award for DW Errey LTD celebrating 50 years as an NRC member. It was a pleasure to hear Dennis’s reflections on 50 years in the industry, and to meet his lovely wife Ange, and sons Jake and Scott who are following in their father’s footsteps and running the business.

It was a pleasure for me to take the members through the success the team at NRC has had on their behalf. For those who weren’t there, I talked about how:

- We’re moving into membership growth, having turned around an attrition trend through increased prospecting and tailored member engagement,

- We’ve invested in our people, processes and systems. We’ve established a partnership with EECA to develop informed and realistic emissions reduction policies for our industry, and

- We’ve advanced key issues including freight and supply chain productivity, focusing on safety and compliance and improved roading and infrastructure.

We couldn’t have had this successful year without our sponsors who are so generous with their support. There are too many to list individually, but I would like to thank our Gold sponsors who helped make the AGM such a memorable evening: NZI Insurance, Freuhauf  NZ Ltd and Z Energy.

One measure of a thriving industry association is the quality of candidates putting themselves forward to be on the Board. By that measure NRC is knocking it out of the park. After a strong response to nominations for the Board, an election was held and Kieran Carr, Nikki Ellis and Kyle Wilson were voted in as Board members. My congratulations to the successful Board candidates, we are blessed to have such high-calibre individuals volunteering their time and expertise to improve the industry, and I’m looking forward to working  them in the year ahead.

The AGM also marked the retirement of two stalwart Board members – Calven Bonney and Don Wilson. Calven has made an unmatched contribution to the road freight industry in his fifty years with the NRC Board, and I am personally grateful to him for his time and guidance as I came up to speed as CEO. Don has served as a Chairman who has worked exceptionally hard on behalf of members, particularly for the live stock sector. Thank you both for your service, the industry is in your debt.

Good news Friday

This week has seen a modest flurry of good news, and given good news is currently in short supply, we will take it.

On Sunday the Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Minister of Transport Chris Bishop and Mayor of Auckland Wayne Brown commenced the Takanini level crossing replacement project. With the City Rail Link due to open next year, increasing the number of trains per hour, getting grade-separated roading overbridges in place is crucial to keep freight moving in the important industrial hub. Perplexingly funding was not put aside to replace the crossings by central government when the project was announced way back in 2016, which means transport operators in the area will have to endure congestion for a few more years yet. Despite the fact the bridges won’t be completed in time for the opening of the much anticipated City Rail Link (properties are only just being acquired now for construction), NRC celebrates the fact that they are finally underway. 

Catching up on much-needed infrastructure was given a boost with another $30 billion of projects added to the National Infrastructure Pipeline this quarter.  The pipeline now contains over 9200 projects across all types of infrastructure that are either planned or underway. National Road Carriers submitted on the importance of the National Infrastructure Plan last month, supporting the pipeline view which is critical for building confidence for those investing and employing in the sector. This is positive news for the construction sector, especially when added to the $6 billion of construction which has been announced as starting before Christmas. 

Another very positive sign for getting the country moving again was the Port of Auckland successfully receiving fast track approval for its expansion project. This was the first project to get consent under the coalition government’s fast track regime, taking only 66 days. With previous consents being measured in years not days, this project proves that fast-tracking can be done fully and effectively.

The approval allows the Port to get on with major capacity enhancements for both cargo import and export and passenger services. It includes extending the Fergusson North berth so it can take larger cruise ships, reinforcing the Bledisloe Terminal as a new multi-cargo capability and building a new much-needed cruise passenger terminal.

Lastly, a 20 year-old Auckland law student Sean O’Loughlin has won a court case against Auckland Transport after arguing they failed to follow the law when installing three speed bumps along The Parade at Little Bucklands Beach. The High Court agreed that Auckland Transport focussed only on safety and speed reduction, and did not adequately consider the impact to motorists. O’Loughlin told the court the only crash on the The Parade had been caused by a speeding public bus, with only a minor injury as a result. Yet three speed bumps were installed in less than one kilometre. 

Pleasingly AT is reviewing its decision documentation and processes generally after the High Court judgment, In NRC’s engagement with AT we continually remind them that transport projects have to consider all network users, and carefully trade off between motor vehicle and freight journey times, pedestrians, cyclists, safety and emissions reduction. Not to mention usability of the road corridor for trucks when raised speed bumps and round-abouts are put in.

The High Court has sent a strong reminder here to Councils up and down the country on their obligation under law to carefully weigh these trade offs for the benefit of all road network users, and not just focus exclusively on speed and safety.

Congratulations Sean on an important win for better transport planning. 

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