Laying the foundations for transport operators to thrive in 2025 – NRC

With the flurry of public holidays disappearing rapidly in the rear-view mirror, for most businesses now comes the time to reflect on the road ahead.

So what’s on the cards for 2025, and how best to prepare?

While the economy may be recovering, it’s safe to say strap in for a year of ups and downs.

There are positives: interest rates are lowering, business confidence is growing.

But the transport sector remains a mixed bag. Dairy is thriving, agriculture exports are strong and logging demand remains solid. General freight volumes remain low, with some hits of modest growth. Construction is still very quiet – concrete volumes are the lowest in a decade, as evidenced by Infometrics report yesterday.

With unemployment remaining high and interest rate cuts still filtering through to fixed mortgages, tight economic conditions should be expected to remain for much of the year.

What is National Road Carrier’s advice to our members for the year ahead?

Forecast your cashflows: by mapping out known costs and expected income, you can manage your future cashflow. NRC’s cost calculator tool is invaluable for accurately predicting your cashflows – use it.

Take action now, don’t wait in hope: making the tough decisions now means you’ll have more options later.

Keep people informed: your customers, your staff – working together can come up with creative solutions to manage your cashflow.

Get advice – you’re not alone: one of the best benefits of National Road Carriers is our team are experts at running transport businesses, we’ll look at all the options with you as we have no vested interest other than your success – call us.

Already this year we’ve had a number of members call us asking us for help. Some have left it very late, and lamented if only they’d known about our expertise. They found out the hard way that when it comes to transport operations, accountants and lawyers simply don’t have the depth of expertise our team does.

So what are we asking government to help with the transport sector in 2025?

Later this month I will be meeting Chris Bishop as our new Minister of Transport. My message is simple: Focus on lifting freight task productivity – it underpins our economic productivity, and no one in government has their eye on this ball. Stimulate construction to get things moving. Kickstart the Roads of National Significance work, find the shovel ready projects and get them going. Otherwise we’ll continue to lose workers to overseas.

Safety first

Lastly, this year has unfortunately started with too many truck accidents on our highways, many avoidable. The start of the year is a great opportunity to remind your drivers of the safety basics – concentrating on driving, removing distractions – no phones while driving, actively managing fatigue, doing your pre-starts – and all of the other tasks that add up to a safe journey.

Safety never sleeps – resolve now to make 2025 your best year yet for safety compliance.

– By Justin Tighe-Umbers, chief executive, National Road Carriers