ROAD TRANSPORT FORUM – Rational thinking needed for recovery

6 MinutesBy NZ Trucking magazineJuly 8, 2020

It is appropriate as we move down through the alert levels that we take a moment to thank all the essential workers and especially the truck drivers who kept this country running during alert level 3 and level 4 lockdown. For the lockdown to be effective, the vast majority of us were largely confined to our homes. This could only have been possible because of the efforts of thousands of essential workers leaving the safety of their homes every day to deliver essential goods. The reason why supermarkets, petrol stations and pharmacies remained well stocked was in no small part due to our truck drivers, warehousing and store workers. These were also the people who ensured our economy didn‘t completely disintegrate by making sure that exports got to ports and imports were distributed around the country. It is easy, with the benefit of hindsight, to underestimate just how stressful those early days under level 4 were for these workers. Not knowing what the risks were of exposure to the virus, it cannot have been a comfortable experience to leave their family bubble every day.

For many operators, the lockdown meant running at a considerable loss, as suppliers and customers reduced their demand for freight and trucks were either parked up or run well under capacity. There was also confusion from government over the rules around freight movements, and while the RTF managed to achieve the right result in the end, there was considerable frustration in getting officials to understand just why essential freight could not be separated from non-essential freight. I do not mean to be overly critical of the regulatory agencies, as on the whole they displayed a willingness to be constructive. Unfortunately, some problems require greater flexibility and nimbleness than is typical of the modus operandi from government.

Hopefully there will be major lessons out of this for Wellington bureaucrats, not least to have greater trust in industries and businesses to work out solutions for themselves. People who work in the supply chain, for instance, understand how the logistics network works and where the pressure points are, so why not allow them to decide with their customers how and when freight can be delivered? If there is a silver lining to come out of this for our industry it is that there is a greater understanding of just how essential road freight transport is and how complex the logistics network can be. Let‘s just hope this appreciation finds its way to the Beehive and translates into future policy-making that is based on a rational understanding of how freight transport is central to the success of our economy. While we were still under level 4 lockdown, government asked a group of industry leaders to seek out infrastructure projects that could help kick-start our economic comeback and provide work for the expected surge in unemployed workers. The RTF submitted that key roading projects – including the Petone-Grenada Link in Wellington, the East-West Link between Onehunga and Mt Wellington in Auckland, and the Selwyn to Timaru highway updates in Canterbury – should all be considered. We also recommended that legislation, similar to what was used following the Christchurch and Kaikoura earthquakes, be used to fast-track infrastructure projects in order to avoid unnecessary hold-ups and consenting. The RTF‘s view is that if the government is to borrow billions of dollars to help stimulate the economy, it is critical that it is done in a way that will fuel greater economic activity well into the future.

On the other side of the coin is an idea from the Green Party for the government to spend $9 billion on a set of high-spec, high-speed regional rail services from places like Ashburton to Christchurch and Masterton to Wellington. Despite the fact that with our small population there is little to no demand for such services, such is the determination to force people and freight off the roads that somehow the Green‘s idea was treated as a credible proposal. I am strongly of the view that the best possible recovery is where New Zealand plays to our natural economic advantages and invests in infrastructure projects that help maximise the profitability of our primary and export sectors. The opposing argument from groups like the Greens is based on a utopian, almost authoritarian view of our recovery. They want to see government use the opportunity to force societal change upon us, tie our economy much more closely to the state, and disregard the reality that every dollar we borrow today is another dollar that taxpayers will have to pay back tomorrow. Be warned, these are the battle lines of a major philosophical debate that is about to take place regarding the direction of our country. It is a debate that must be won by hardheaded rational policymaking; not only for the future of our industry, but also for the future of our market-driven economy.

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