The following statement was issued on Friday 16 February 2024 by National Road Carriers chairman John Baillie and New Zealand Trucking Association president Rob Taylor to members of their respective associations.

 “Over the past year National Road Carriers (NRC) and the New Zealand Trucking Association (NTA) have in good faith sought to work constructively with Transporting New Zealand (TNZ) on several important initiatives for the road freight industry.

This has included the Road Freight Safety Partnership, a key government-industry collaborative forum chaired by Waka Kotahi. TNZ have not reciprocated by working in good faith. Despite the numerous public calls for “one voice”, the actions of TNZ have made it clear that rather than working together in partnership as agreed, they have chosen to exploit these collaborative opportunities to progress their agenda to the detriment of the industry outcomes being sought.

The impacts of this have included:

• Jeopardising the industry reputation with the regulator by threatening to escalate an unwarranted grievance to executive leadership, while a member of the Road Freight Safety Partnership.
• Deliberate stonewalling of the important industry safety accreditation scheme NZTA are seeking to implement, without any clear reason offered (other than an apparent insistence TNZ receive funding from NZTA).
• Declining to participate in the upcoming industry conference run by NTA and NRC • Multiple attempts by TNZ to recruit NRC and NTA Board members.

NRC and NTA have a track record of partnering constructively with government for the benefit of the industry. The highly successful HARMFree initiative, and the developing TruckSafe initiative have  shown the success of this approach.

Following the disruptive actions of TNZ, we have taken the step to explain to NZTA that despite our  best efforts, we cannot partner with TNZ as they have failed to act in good faith in the true spirit of  partnership.

As this failure has been evident in the Road Freight Safety Partnership meetings, NZTA understand our position, and will explore a more realistic model to engage with industry.

No longer being able to partner closely with the regulator in the Road Freight Safety Partnership is an opportunity lost for the road transport industry. Our decision to stop working with TNZ is not taken lightly, but we have no choice given the behaviour exhibited in 2023.

NRC and NTA will continue to focus on developing initiatives that deliver benefits to the road freight industry, in the interests of our members who represent more than two thirds of the sector.

John Baillie, chairman, National Road Carriers.