It’s been a week of economic positivity!

Following on from BusinessNZ’s news last week that New Zealand’s manufacturing sector had its highest value for expansion since August 2022, we had more positive news with a rise in GDP.

The seasonally adjusted Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI) for February was 53.9 (above 50.0 indicates that manufacturing is expanding; below 50.0 means it’s declining). This was up from 51.7 in January and the highest level of expansion since August 2022. The February result is also above the average of 52.5 for the survey since it began. The February result built on the return to expansion that started in January.

New Zealand’s gross domestic product (GDP) rose 0.7% in the December 2024 quarter, following a 1.1% decrease in the September 2024 quarter, according to Stats NZ.

GDP per capita rose 0.4% during the December 2024 quarter, its first rise in two years. Some commentators are suggesting these are signs that the broader economy is turning for the better and that the pickup may be a bit faster than forecast.

It’s still early days but hopefully these indicators bring some relief to those that were under huge pressure to “survive until 2025”, and it’s certainly better than negative results.

National Road Freight Survey shows strong positive attitudes towards truck drivers

Public polling done for us by independent survey firm Research New Zealand shows that more than seven times as many people surveyed have a positive perception of road freight drivers compared to those having a negative view.

Over 1000 New Zealanders were surveyed and it found 52% of respondents had a positive perception of truck drivers, 35% were neutral, and 7% held a negative perception. 5 per cent did not give a response.

People remarked upon truck drivers’ professionalism and skills, being an essential service and their economic contribution, plus their hard work and long hours, as the three main reasons for the results.

Support for truck drivers was consistent regardless of what form of private transport the survey respondents used (car, public transport, walking, bike or motorcycle, or other).

Transporting New Zealand Policy and Advocacy Lead Billy Clemens has led the development of the survey and says the results are a great recognition of the incredible work New Zealand’s 33,000 professional truck drivers do, moving nearly 93% of the country’s freight tasks.

We consistently say our people are the industry’s most valuable asset, and that’s reinforced by these results.

For me, the survey findings aren’t a surprise but it is good to have solid data to back up my opinion! Plus, without good data there’s the risk that we presume too many things about the sector.

The results also showed a minority of respondents had some concerns about truck drivers, mainly based around road safety and driving behaviour. Social media coverage of questionable behaviour on the roads is growing rapidly, and things can get out of hand pretty quickly.

The vast majority of the members I talk to are acutely aware of the value of reputation and brand – in many cases it’s their family name of the door of their vehicle.

Because of that they spend a considerable amount of time and effort setting clear expectations for their drivers around good driving. They want their people to come home safely at night and they don’t want their trucks hurting others on the road. That said it’s something our whole industry needs to keep working on and we can never slack off in this area.

 In the meantime, we’ll also keep advocating for investment in overtaking lanes, road widening and other infrastructure that improves safety and productivity outcomes for all road users.

Thanks for the survey responses

We had a fabulous response to a Facebook post publicising a NZTA survey on Cardan Shaft Park Brakes. Our post reached about 65,200 people and there were a lot of comments about it which helped drive a healthy response to the survey.

 The National Road Freight Survey continues to go great guns and a $500 Bridgestone voucher will be presented to one of the March survey respondents. And there’s $500 worth of travel from the House of Travel to another lucky person too!

The information from industry personnel will give us plenty of hard data to work with which is vitally important in this time of technical change and changing customer demands.

Your opinion is important so if you haven’t already filled out it, just go to: https://survey.researchnz.com/S2/1/RoadFreight/

– By Dom Kalasih, chief executive officer, Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand