As a member organisation it’s vital we listen to what’s on the minds of our members, particularly when there are so many changes happening.

So it’s been great over the last few days, while on the road to the HWR Hall of Fame in Invercargill, to have met so many members. We also have the North Island Seminar in Napier next week to hear directly from members what are the issues that matter to them.

Our member visits have been another great demonstration of how lucky we are to have so many hard-working and down-to-earth people in the transport industry.

There’s no question times are tough, but I didn’t hear one complaint. All the people we met are adjusting and dealing with what’s in front of them. I have no doubt that economist Cam Bagrie’s view that tough times are good for the industry, because well-managed and well-run operations will survive and lesser companies will fall away, is pretty spot on. The levels of patience, resilience and good strategising was clearly evident and I take my hat off to each and every one of these people.

Earlier in the week I had some down time while getting an IT upgrade, if that’s not an oxymoron, so I was tidying up some old files in the office. I perused a Road Transport Forum submission made in September 2000 to the then-Minister of Transport, Mark Gosche, on Truck Safety Policy Recommendations.

It’s interesting to see that nearly a quarter of a century ago, among other things, our industry was calling for NZTA to introduce a comprehensive Operator Licensing/Safety Rating System; that government deliver improved vehicle safety and productivity through increased weights and dimensions; that legal driving hours be simplified; that government review its roading investment policy with a view to improving the contribution better roads can make to road safety; and that the HSE Act be clarified to ensure that all parties who have some control over the transport of goods are able to be held accountable for actions which contribute to unsafe practices.

There have been wins since then. SRT was introduced and while I haven’t seen data, from what I understand rollovers rates are down. Increased weights and dimensions have been   introduced, though some of the associated administrative conditions are somewhat farcical, but without that there would be more trucks and drivers required to complete the current tasks. Therefore, alongside the commensurate reductions in fuel demand and risk exposure from lower vehicle kilometres travelled, the increased productivity has been good for the economy.

An Operator Rating System was also introduced but that appears to be in a comatose state and doesn’t appear to deliver any benefits either in better targeting the regulators’ efforts to reduce non-compliance or promote the value of highly compliant operators.

While it’s good to hear NZTA is aware of it and trying to manage it, it was concerning to hear last week that NZTA is facing significant problems with the Class 2 to 5 licence trainer and provider industry which is resulting in people being licensed that shouldn’t be.

As a result some of those licences or licence endorsements are being revoked and the drivers will need to re-sit that training. Some of that action has already taken place with DG endorsements which we supported and we will continue doing that.

What I was also pleased to hear NZTA saying was it unsure whether there was a correlation between those licence holders that had been passed by dodgy licence agents and unsafe performance. That may sound weird, but I like that because it indicates NZTA is thinking about risk as well as compliance. As we’ve raised previously we’ve regrettably gone through a lengthy period where compliance trumped managing risk – think no further than road cones! So it’s good to see NZTA starting to think differently about this.

NZTA has raised concerns that the legislation doesn’t have sufficient scope to prevent new entrants gaining transport service licences, and it appears it has similar issues with approving licence trainers and providers. In any environment that requires participants to be licensed then the controls managing entrants and participants need to be effective and have high integrity and that should be the fundamental core role and responsibility of the regulator.

I’m not sure what we can do to help but we are certainly open to discussing with NZTA what we can do to assist as the danger of more bottom feeders joining and continuing to be allowed to compete is a significant risk to our industry and our economic recovery.

Maybe these tough times will help but the regulators also need to focus their efforts on those operators rather than the part of the transport sector that is performing okay.

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