The Transporting New Zealand North Island Seminar took place in Napier last month, the first seminar since the industry body formally adopted its new constitution and governance structure. We cover off some of the key issues of the event – the economy, the Recovery at Work programme and safety.

The seminar featured a wide range of industry professionals, who spoke on a range of topics from industry updates, insurance, finance and legal tips, to regulatory issues. Keynotes were delivered by MP Katie Nimon, economist Cameron Bagrie and special guest Lisa Tamati – ultra runner, health coach, entrepreneur and motivational speaker.

Transporting New Zealand interim chief executive Dom Kalasih opened the seminar, welcoming new board members Scott Johnstone, general manager of Brenics in Christchurch, and Murray Young, general manager from NZ Express Transport, also based in Christchurch, and thanked departing board members Deb O’Brien and Peter Heagney.

“The success and growth of our country heavily relies on the work you all do. One way or another, every person in this country relies every day on goods getting to where they need to be, on time – and most of that goes by road,” Kalasih says.

“It’s hard work, but it’s also great to be a part of it. I know time is precious, but the fact that you’re all here is another great demonstration of the passion, dedication, commitment and the love for the sector.”

2025 “less bad”

Economist Cameron Bagrie says that while next year is looking a bit more positive than this year, some changes still need to occur.

“This year’s talk is going to be more upbeat than last year, but we are coming off a bloody low base,” he says.

“The last time the National Party was in power, they diverted a whole lot of money from road maintenance into Roads of National Significance. And of course, you can’t just take from Peter to pay Paul, because all of a sudden the quality of the roading network is crap. And this is what we’re dealing with at the moment,” Bagrie says.

“There’s an awful lot of blame that’s been directed at the previous government, and a fair bit of that is fair because they were spending like drunken sailors.

“But to really appreciate what’s going on, if we look at the health sector, the state of the police, infrastructure, across New Zealand, we’ve got 10 to 20 years of poor decision-making that we now need to address.

“And the solution is neither austerity, which is what the current government is proposing, or just throwing money at the problem.”

Bagrie says we need to embrace change.

“One of the things that’s holding New Zealand back at the moment is we’ve got this fixation with debt. Now there’s nothing wrong with debt as long as you’re investing and using that money smartly. So, we need to pivot, and we need to invest with discipline,” he says.

“The way I characterise 2025 is that 2025 will be ‘less bad’,” Bagrie says.

“That doesn’t mean 2025 is going to be that good, but what we do know is that there’s a whole lot of optimism out there. The business sector does not like a red government; they love a blue government. But does it relate to economic outcomes? Absolutely not.”

“Are things in the next 12 months going to get better, stay the same or get worse? For most businesses, you’re thinking, ‘Well, it can’t be any bloody worse’.”

Bagrie says the economy is turning around slowly, and it will come out of recession.

“But I look at the political spectrum in New Zealand at the moment, and I don’t like any of ‘em,” he says.

“I don’t think they are real leaders anymore. They stand up and they tell people what we want to hear, as opposed to what we need to hear. We need some brutal honesty. This is what we need to get things done.

“Acknowledging things such as New Zealand superannuation is not sustainable. Any politician that stands up and says it is sustainable does not know how to do basic maths because it doesn’t stack up.

“I’m watching with interest where we go with the Roads of National Significance because, of course, someone’s got to pay, and there’s a $6 billion gap between the plan and the money that’s in the tin.

“If you wanna cheer yourself up, go overseas for a couple of weeks, and then you’ll come back, and you’ll realise that maybe New Zealand’s not such a bad place.”

Recovery at work

Transporting New Zealand has been working with ACC to pilot its Recovery at Work programme.

The programme went through a trial phase with K&S Freighters and Conroy Group. It looked to learn more about how it could work within the transport sector.

ACC relationship manager Nathan Meo says the longer an injured employee spends away from the workforce, the less likely it is that they will return productively and happily to the workplace.

“A lot of us were told that businesses – meatworks, especially – wouldn’t take anyone back to work unless they were 100% fit,” Meo says.

“But what is 100% fit? There’s been a bit of a change in thinking, and that’s really around utilising an ’individual’s capacity. Certifying more of what they can do, not what they can’t do,” he says.

“A big part of that is having the employee connected to rehabilitation in the workplace. Hopefully most of your businesses would’ve seen a big increase in what we call Fit for Selected Work certificates over the last few years. And that piece of paper is really saying what they can do and what they can’t do. It’s then up to the employer to decide how to utilise that.”

Meo says that ACC has been working more with the industry to look at specific solutions.

“We reached out to Transporting New Zealand, and we had some really good engagement and adoption of the hypothesis, which is that workplace intervention can be effective in improving recovery at work outcomes.”

According to Meo, in 2023, New Zealand businesses lost 18.5 million workdays to injury, which had a significant impact on both employees and businesses.

“Over the last year, ACC has had the privilege of working with Transporting New Zealand and businesses within the road freight transport industry. The learnings we’ve received from this have been invaluable and have helped show the benefits that Recovery at Work will have for everyone,” he says.

During the trial, one company had a 50% decrease in their incapacity.

“That’s huge for productivity,” Meo says.

“Commitment was another big theme, and this really needs to be driven at all levels of the business.”

Meo says it is important employees know the full process of what happens when they are injured and away from work.

“If they are injured, they should know what is going to happen, rather than waiting for someone to tell them what happens.”

Meo says some unintended consequences emerged from the trial.

“We saw that incident reporting increased. Why is that a good thing? Well, that’s how hazard management works. If you’re not knowing what’s going on, you’re not knowing how to prevent it,” he says.

Meo says that during a historic five-year period in transport, there were close to 10,000 claims that were for more than a week off work. Over 60% of injuries in the industry were soft tissue injuries.

“That’s sort of suggesting they were a type of injury that could have had support for managing rehabilitation,” he says

“There’s a huge percentage of people who are staying off work for over six months. That’s some pretty scary numbers if you’ve got someone out in the business for more than six months. That’s over 600 years of lost productivity.

“Can the industry actually deal with that loss of productivity, or can we flip it around and find what value we can get?”

Meo says teamwork makes recovery work.

“It’s the employees, the employer, the GP, the providers, the family, everyone who contributes.

“For businesses, it’s supporting alternate duties and getting the right certification. That’s where you’re going to get your big wins.

“Have a process, and make sure everyone knows what happens. Make sure the employees know so they do the same thing each time.

“And support the recovery at work.”

In it together

Matt Arthurs from the NZ Police Commercial Vehicle Safety Team emphasised that everyone has a role to play when it comes to safety and compliance.

“Complacency kills. Good people make mistakes quite regularly, and the behaviour you walk past is the behaviour you condone. If you’re not interacting and stopping that behaviour, you really are part of the problem,” he says.

Arthurs says CVST is seeing many operators take shortcuts.

“We’re seeing operators starting to take safety devices out. And it’s purely financial. They’re just cutting costs,” he says.

“We rely on operators with their systems and compliance to keep people safe – we can’t be in remote places at random times.

“The chances of us being up at four o’clock in the morning is pretty remote. So that’s why we rely on you guys with your compliance and your systems to help us out, and keep your people safe.

“I actually went to a road- work zone a few months ago, early in the morning. The driver was going too fast, no seatbelt, and hadn’t filled out a log. This is what we are dealing with on a regular basis.”

Death and serious injury stats

According to Arthurs, failing to wear a seatbelt or restraint is a factor in 21% of DSI crashes.

“The most likely way for a truck driver to die is not wearing a seatbelt,” Arthurs says.

“That’s a frustrating point from my perspective. We’ve got a safety device that’s been around for years, and we are just not using it.

“If you’ve got systems and you’ve got policies, make sure you’re actually applying those policies and you’re having the conversations when you’re finding people that aren’t wearing their seatbelt.”

“It’s one thing having policies; it’s another thing actually having conversations from those policies when they arise.”

Thirteen percent of all DSI crashes involve impairment, which involves drugs, alcohol or fatigue.

“There was some research done, probably 15 years ago, that showed 90% of blood analysed from deceased and crashed drivers had a mixture of illicit drugs and alcohol, or just alcohol. It’s a huge problem. And it’s not necessarily your illicit drugs, it’s people managing pain,” Arthurs says.

“We’re seeing more drivers under the influence of alcohol and some pretty horrendous readings.”

Arthurs says there is an expectation on the police to deliver 3.3 million breath tests this year, as well as 50,000 roadside drug tests.

“We’re not sure what that legislation looks like yet. But there’s a real chance for you guys to get ahead of the game with your drug and alcohol testing,” he says.

“I’m hearing there are still some practices around where testing is not that random – that people know it’s happening, so they go away on a long trip or they’re not in the office when it’s done. So, it’s not true random drug testing. It’s a policy for the sake of a policy and a process for the sake of a process.”

Distraction

Cellphones are 5% of DSI, and Arthurs believes this to be quite under-reported.

“Cellphones have become so much of an extension of people’s lives; half the time, they don’t realise they’re using them.

“The most common reason for a driver to be using a cellphone is work or the boss. So that’s not just a driver’s problem, that’s a wider problem,” he says.

“We’ve got an expectation on us to deliver 40,000 cellphone infringements. If you’re seeing it, please deal with it.”

Jeff Taylor, NZTA, says mobile phone detection technology was trialled in New Zealand about 12-18 months ago.

“The trial was really successful. One camera picked up 50,000 users in a month,” he says.

“However, we have some privacy issues at the moment. Brilliant technology, we just can’t use it yet.”

Taylor says the safety camera system being rolled out by NZTA focused primarily on speed, but it will have the technology to rotate or expand into restraint and cellphones.

“It is coming. But in my view, we will never have the infringement scales that our cousins across the Tasman have. In New South Wales, it’s a $800 fine for using your cellphone. That is a deterrent. That is an absolute deterrent,” he says.

“One of the key differences we have when we are developing digital solutions is that individual and corporate privacy is paramount, and we are absolutely risk averse in that space.”