Haulage firm says bans could cripple economy

A haulage firm ordered off the road by the New Zealand Transport Authority for a series of alleged safety breaches claim a series of similar actions around the country could cripple the Kiwi economy.

Stan Semenoff Logging, a company part-owned by former Whangarei mayor Stan Semenoff, is fighting an NTZA decision to revoke its licence after incurring 119 road safety breaches and has won a High Court injunction to stay on the road until an appeal hearing in May.

The log trucking company is just one of many transport operators facing closure after an NZTA crackdown: the NZTA have issued another 114 ‘notices of proposals to revoke/suspend’ transport operator’s licences. Revocations mean the operators must get off the roads.

In the three years to mid-2018, the NZTA issued 66 revocation notices; in the past six months alone, they have handed out 20, including to Semenoff Logging. Last month, they revoked the licences of two Southland operators, Clutha Transport and Mcdowall Rural Services.

The NZTA action came after Transport Minister Phil Twyford said the agency had failed in its duties as regulator, and the agency appointed lawyers Meredith Connell to address their compliance backlog.

‘‘We think the downstream effect of our business being shut down is probably going to affect another 1000 jobs in the north,’’ said Semenoff Logging general manager Daron Turner. ‘‘The infrastructure is stretched anyway so if the service isn’t there, the wood doesn’t move. We move about $87 million of logs a year.

‘‘That’s just one company – now there’s another 120 the NZTA is threatening to revoke the licences of, and that will cripple this country’s economy.’’

Turner said he knew of two other trucking firms in Northland alone that faced revocation notices. ‘‘I can’t believe that people can’t see the implications that this is going to have on the country. I can’t believe it’s not been on the front pages. We are just one of many.’’

Nick Leggett, chief executive of the Road Transport Forum, said the industry was seeing a huge increase in audits and action. He said the NZTA was responding to a ‘‘decade of inattention and lack of resourcing’’ and while safety was the priority, he was worried about the dial shifting too far.

He said a range of changes by NZTA ‘‘put the spotlight on how important the road transport industry is to the economy, and if you take out significant businesses, there will be an economic impact’’.

‘‘But at the same time there has been an under emphasis by the regulator for the last decade, and this is playing catch-up.’’

The NZTA said it wasn’t appropriate to respond directly to Turner’s claims while the court case was proceeding, and pointed back to its statement on March 19 when the Semenoff revocation was announced.

This said, ‘‘as with every revocation we enforce, we know this will have an impact on people employed by the company, and that is why we have made every effort to engage with Mr Semenoff to avoid getting to this point’’.