One of our objectives this year is a focus on enabling change and having a regulatory system and framework that is more responsive to the opportunities new technology provides.

We believe innovative high-productivity vehicles play an important role in unlocking safety, environmental and economic benefits. This will play a key part in improving our economic performance.

Many other international jurisdictions across the world are going with vehicles like this and we would be disappointed if NZ didn’t keep up with that approach and ended up missing some golden opportunities to improve productivity.

Technology has improved, as has our ability to understand the low and high-speed performance of heavy vehicles. From the analysis we have seen there are many gains to be had, given the reduced vehicle kilometres travelled that would result from using vehicles like this.

Super high productivity vehicles are a “win-win” solution. We support the proposal and we urge NZTA to continue considering innovative vehicles and transport solutions like this.

One of the risks we are facing is being hamstrung by our current regulatory system. For example, there are legacy policies such as a “limit” of 25m for vehicle combinations, but in our view these limits become somewhat irrelevant if the route is appropriate. As well, many of those legacy limits apply only to divisible loads but in reality, I suspect many thousands, if not tens of thousands, of over-dimension indivisible loads exceeding 25m in length have safely travelled on the network. This clearly demonstrates that under the appropriate conditions the travel of vehicles and loads over 25m can be safely managed.

In a similar vein, Transporting New Zealand sees no rational reason for NZTA having an arbitrary blanket limit restricting the journey length of specific routes when considering super high productivity vehicles.

Enabling a system that can work more efficiently will require a new way of thinking with our regulatory partners and, along with managing the risk of increasing compliance costs, which is a key focus of ours this year.

The good news is that the recent progress with NZTA’s proposed vehicle driver licence exemption to allow small battery electric trucks is a good example of NZTA being more responsive to allow positive change. It’s something we sought nearly two years ago but at least it is now being progressed in a meaningful way.

A good lesson in safety

A few weeks ago, thanks to the Log Transport Safety Council we were able to share some learnings from a highly publicised incident regarding a trailer becoming dis-coupled while being towed on the highway. That incident could potentially have led to more serious outcomes.

Ultimately the learnings come down to ensuring critical systems aren’t at risk of a “single point failure”.

NZTA has also followed up with a Safety alert. For me the response to the issue is a good demonstration of the industry and the regulator acting promptly when issues arise.

On Wednesday I was in Christchurch visiting a member and joined them in a meeting with NZTA to find out what is happening with the Rolleston Access Improvement Project and how it might impact a platform weigh bridge that is made available for other road users.

I thought this was another good demonstration of operators doing their bit to make sure they manage the risks to our roading network.

Economic boost

In further positive news, according to the latest BNZ – BusinessNZ Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI), the New Zealand’s manufacturing sector displayed growth for the first time in 23 months.

The seasonally adjusted PMI for January was 51.4 (a PMI reading above 50.0 indicates that manufacturing is generally expanding; below 50.0 it is declining). This was up from 46.2 in December and the highest level of expansion since September 2022. However, the January result is still below the average of 52.5 since the survey began.

Take the survey

Don’t forget about the 2025 Road Freight Survey – it’s your chance to make your voice heard about the state of the industry.

As a bonus, pre-register for the 10-minute survey and go in the draw to win a 10th gen iPad!

Check it out: www.survey.researchnz.com/S2/1/RoadFreightReg/

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