Somehow it doesn’t feel right to be sitting at the keyboard reflecting on the year that has been.

A tired cliche, but this year has gone properly fast.

For the industry, it has probably been a year to forget. The soft economy saw transport demand fall to levels not seen for decades. But the worst appears to be behind us.

For the government, this has been the year of 100 day plans, in catch up mode across the board for health, education, immigration and yes infrastructure. It has felt like a major announcement on some important policy matter came every two or three days.

Which has meant for NRC, we’ve had a busy year.

But not just because of the government agenda.

We’ve taken advantage of the transport slow down to get our own house in order, so we are match fit for serving our members as the economy heats up next year.

The team have delivered. Here is just a smattering of what we’ve ticked off this year:

- Launched our new member management system and website

- Moved our popular Full Throttle Industry magazine to a digital format, increasing from quarterly to monthly

- Launched the informative NRC “On Schedule” podcast series (if you’re not listening, you should be)

- Established our Wellington advocacy presence

- Re-shaped our commercial transport specialist team, member portfolios and regional service model

- Ran competitive fuel discount campaigns for members

- Started the year with a major 2 day industry conference in Christchurch

An enormous thank you to my amazing team for all your efforts this year, so much that is not on the list. I am proud of how tirelessly you’ve worked the phones helping our members in their hour of need.

A big thank you too to all of our commercial partners for their stellar support of NRC this year, especially our Platinum partners  Z Energy, Mobil, Marsh Insurance and One NZ . We can’t support this great industry without you.

If you are feeling like you need a cup of tea and lie down after that lot – you can be forgiven.

I know I will be with my beautiful three boys and wife.

Merry Christmas

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