Someone once said bad strategy is just a statement of desires rather than a plan for overcoming obstacles.

Wise words.

National Road Carriers has been consistently calling for a 50-year plan for roading. We got 30 years with the National Infrastructure Plan. We’ll take it.

But we haven’t stopped there. The NRC board and the team have been taking a long, hard look at what this industry needs to succeed now and in the future.

We’ve established our clear vision: we are here to build a safe, effective and resilient supply chain that supports productivity and prosperity for our members and the wider industry.

It is about setting the conditions today that enable the transport sector to thrive tomorrow and beyond.

So far, so simple. Or is it?

The challenge confronting New Zealand is that we have a bunch of foundational changes happening all at once. And as every good structural engineer knows, the more foundations you fix at once, the more unstable the building becomes.

We have a roading infrastructure deficit, and the plan to address it has a $6 billion funding gap forecast by NZTA by the end of the decade. At the same time, the bonnet is up on how we pay for roads, with fuel excise duty take falling away as engines get more efficient and EVs grow. In the middle of this we have an emissions reduction plan that demands an ambitious replacement of the transport fleet from fossil fuels to zero-emissions vehicles.

Sharp-eyed readers will notice none of these big-ticket items aim to improve the freight task’s productivity, efficiency or safety.

Keeping our eye on this ball matters. Get it wrong, dent freight transport productivity, and that adds up to everyone having to pay more for all their goods as more expensive transport costs are tacked on – something our fragile economy can ill afford.

Don’t get us wrong – NRC supports these initiatives. We want better roading, so we must find better ways to pay our fair share for them.

We want to reduce carbon emissions of the road freight transport fleet. Our future depends on it.

But we don’t want them at the expense of productivity, efficiency and safety. They have to be an “and” and not an “or”.

So, who is keeping their eye on freight efficiency as an explicit goal in government?

We’ve asked around, and we don’t like the answers.

Not one to sit on the sidelines complaining, NRC is picking up the ball ourselves.

Our call to government is clear: every initiative that impacts the freight task, in government and across industry, should be delivering productivity, efficiency, safety or resilience gains. If they aren’t, we need to ask why we are doing them.

How do we do this?

Transport must be planned as a system, with energy planning in lockstep. We must closely align across transport modes – road, rail, shipping and aviation. The tendency to play one mode off against another as budget winners and losers must stop. A more mature view of working together to grow the freight-task pie needs to replace it.

And we must demand aligned plans and policy objectives from the myriad of government departments, ministries, agencies and organisations that cut across transport.

It’s a big challenge – but NRC is ready. Are you?

We can’t do it alone. We have your back but need the road freight industry behind us.

Remember: No skin in the game, no right to complain.

So, step up. Join us and be part of the solution.