As the dust settles on Budget 2024 and the analysts appear to have done their dash, we now wait with more than a bit of trepidation for the actions to start.

To me, it is a bit disconcerting that we are now entering the arena of yet more government reviews; I thought we had had enough of these under the last mob. Yes, we have to be 100% certain that the limited money available to the government is spent in the right places, but we also have to recognise that reviews soak up time, and we do not have much of that. The country is hurting badly, and many are struggling just to survive from day to day.

Retail spending was down 1.1% in May compared with April, and one only has to look at the daily published list of company liquidations to see the sorry state of businesses, with many of these having a direct effect on moving goods by road.

Gareth Kiernan, Informatics chief forecaster, said recently: “Operators are coming under financial pressure as volumes soften, meaning fixed operating costs have to be covered across a smaller revenue base.” Simply put, your unavoidable costs are going up, but your income is going down, and there is very little scope, if any, to increase rates to compensate. Not a good outlook I have to say.

Unfortunately, there is a perception that moving freight by road is anathema to our way of life. This perception is often born out of the fact that, for many, direct exposure to our industry is by way of following a truck at night, often resembling a Christmas tree on wheels, impeding their travel and forcing them to conduct a dangerous overtaking manoeuvre to pass.

This, of course, is not the industry – it is not the industry that delivers what we rely on to sustain the lifestyle we want or, in the present environment, can afford.

I recently looked at the country of origin of the everyday products I use in my bathroom. I found products from Denmark, Thailand, Australia, Ireland, China, India and Mexico. During each of these products’ journeys from the place they entered New Zealand to my house, they would have travelled on at least one – most likely more – truck.

This is the message the industry associations need to be getting out to people, illustrating how important our industry is to everyday life. The industry is not a parasite on society, it is an essential, and we need to get that message out.

Forget the driver shortage. It is a worldwide problem, and do we really want to train up drivers in New Zealand to have them depart for more lucrative opportunities overseas? I do not think so. Our truck driver shortage or potential driver shortage was well documented 21 years ago and, despite the goodwill and efforts of many, our history in solving the problem is not good. So why persist further?

Some years back, one of the industry associations had a motto “Good things come in trucks”. Let us revive the slogan but remove “good” and start it with “most”.

FINALLY, the incident involving the Interislander ferry Aratere on 21 June is intriguing, to say the least. For a ship – or a boat, for that matter – to run into a hill is akin to the trees and telephone poles that mysteriously jump out in front of vehicles and reminds me of the Clarke and Dewes skit, The Front Fell Off. (It’s worth seeking out on YouTube if you’ve never seen it – and worth seeking again out if you have – Ed).

No doubt there will be a lot of tut-tutting and finger-pointing as to what went wrong. But we will have to wait until the ‘official’ inquiries are completed to know for sure. I do know the incident was not the government’s fault despite the claims coming from some quarters.

I have yet to see any evidence that the government was in control of the ship or steering her at that time…