Let’s celebrate trucks POUNDING ROADS like never before
Despite what some people say, heavier and longer trucks are not ruining our roads. Here’s why we should welcome heavier and longer trucks.
In its briefing to the incoming transport minister, the first point Waka Kotahi made on the issue of funding was: “Alongside inflationary pressure, our funding system is strained due to demands such as new roads, the age of the network and the volume of heavier and longer trucks outpacing the required investment in maintaining and renewing the network.”
Not surprisingly, some media got onto that with an anti-truck angle like: “Trucks are pounding the country’s state highways like never before.”
I was fascinated that Waka Kotahi chose to identify the volume of heavier and longer trucks as a specific issue, as it is not only unfair but it doesn’t tell a full or helpful story. I’m asking it to justify its claim.
I’m a board member of the International Forum for Heavy Vehicle Transport & Technology, and presentations at its biennial conferences are typically dominated by research papers produced by academic institutes. International research demonstrates a different angle.
The simple facts are heavier and longer trucks mean fewer trucks are needed to move the same amount of freight. That means heavier and longer trucks:
• reduce emissions
• reduce congestion
• reduce the safety risk for other road users. I also find the lack of focus on what trucks do is disappointing. The vast majority of our members’ businesses exist because they supply a service others demand.
Generally speaking, there is a positive relationship between heavy-vehicle kilometres travelled and gross domestic product. Therefore, growth in truck movements is generally an indicator of a healthier economy.
Typically, trucks make up about 10% of the traffic stream, and their travel is not discretionary. Trucks move freight or other commodities because others need those things.
By and large, most trucks are diesel, so they pay RUC, with trucks contributing about 65% of the annual RUC income. As the Ministry of Transport’s Domestic Transport Costs and Charges Study showed last year, heavy trucks cover substantially more of their cost to the government than light vehicle and rail transport. In other words, trucks pay far more of their share of public costs than others.
Rather than it being seen as a problem, we should be celebrating that trucks are pounding our roads like never before.
As we’ve seen with the Cook Strait iReX project, this government seems serious about greater accountability on public spending. Maybe Waka Kotahi needs to start strategising and reprioritising its spending so we have greater confidence that freight can get to where it needs to.
I’m not sure how helpful it is to tell the minister that “our funding system is strained”. We agree that funding is critical and our ageing roading network is in desperate need of major maintenance and upgrading. We also agree that severe weather events – intensified by climate change – are having an impact.
Over the past few years, our members have been disappointed to see the road user charges they pay go towards speculative investments in areas like rail and coastal shipping while the condition of the roads continues to decline. Waka Kotahi acknowledged in its briefing that it hasn’t been able to deliver a sustainable level of road rehabilitation in that time.
Our roads and bridges also need to be improved to accommodate heavier vehicles and boost freight efficiency.
The government is making some hard, and in some areas of the community, unpopular decisions. These include canning Auckland’s light rail scheme and Let’s Get Wellington Moving, and announcing a start date for RUC on low-emission vehicles.
I am right behind these calls. We can’t be spending billions on schemes for only two cities that just don’t add up when the infrastructure of the entire country is creaky in places.
The light rail project had $228 million spent on it without a single bit of track being delivered.
The government also announced it will move ahead on a second, sorely needed Mt Victoria road tunnel as well as other highway upgrades in the Wellington region.
The introduction of RUC on light-emission cars had to happen to make sure that all road users are paying their share towards keeping the roading system built and maintained.
In other news, it’s great that work is starting on the safety improvements to
SH5 between Napier and Taupo. Getting the shoulders fixed and the roads widened makes it safer for all drivers, and we believe it’s a better option than blanket speed restrictions, which often aren’t backed by any evidence of the need for them.