Negotiating COVID-19 lockdown bureaucratic bungles
LATE ON TUESDAY AUGUST 11 PRIME Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that Auckland would go into a COVID-19 Level 3 lockdown and the rest of the country would go into Level 2 from noon the following day.
The announcement was made after four cases of community transmission of the COVID-19 virus from the same family were confirmed.
The initial period was for just two and a half days, but I think we all knew the period would most likely be extended – as turned out to be the case when the conditions were extended to two weeks.
Just about everyone in country agrees with the Government’s approach to “go hard and go early” to eliminate the virus – but the short notice of this move meant National Road Carriers once again had to leap into action to keep the road transport industry informed and to advocate with the authorities on behalf of the industry.
One of the biggest challenges has been the alert level difference between Auckland, at Level 3, and the rest of the country at Level 2 – which the Government decided would be enforced with roadblocks heading in and out of Auckland to Northland and Waikato.
We have no problem with the roadblocks because if you make a rule you have to be able to enforce it. We also realise the systems had to be set up PDQ and, because this was new territory, there were inevitably going to be some logistical problems. Sure enough it became quite a snarlup.
We anticipated the congestion at the borders before the lockdown was put in place, and spoke to the various agencies we usually deal with, who were all on board and agreed. We work closely with good people in Auckland Transport (AT), the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) and the NZ Police’s Commercial Vehicle Safety Team (CVST). Our contacts in these agencies listened to what we were saying.
However, the message clearly didn’t get through to the Police who were leading the roadblocks and took it out of the control of the agencies we deal with. As a result, the freight lanes were not put in place early enough or far enough back on the highway to give freight a smooth run.
Despite the industry having been told heavy vehicles would be allowed straight through, trucks got caught up in the congestion for several hours at a time. This was unacceptable, as we all needed to work together to ensure the smooth operation at these roadblocks.
We ended up with a situation at Bombay, heading both north and south, with heavy vehicles stopping and starting on hills for up to 3.5 hours....plus the issue of drivers exceeding their allowable hours.
This severely affected driver wellness and elevated stress levels. We strongly believe the authorities have a duty of care to provide a fit for purpose road network and this includes smooth transition through checkpoints.
Our role was to listen to our members, hear their gripes (there were plenty) and put the industry’s point of view across to the authorities. To get the changes we needed, we had to redouble our efforts, with more behind the scenes discussions with the authorities, together with public statements about the problems by Road Transport Forum CEO Nick Leggett, to bring the issues to the attention of the media, the public and politicians.
The other notable problem we struck was mandatory COVID-19 testing of drivers at the Ports of Auckland and Ports of Tauranga when it seemed possible the virus may have come in through that route.
On behalf of the industry we were crystal clear in our advice to the authorities that drivers collecting and delivering containers from the ports don’t leave their cabs, so there was no need for testing. The ports were right behind us on this.
To start with it was fine, but suddenly the order came down from the Ministry of Health that everyone at the ports had to be tested. Once again we had to go into battle and we were able to make the authorities realise that drivers don’t need to be tested.
As a truck business owner or truck driver, you don’t have full visibility of the work that is going on behind the scenes on your behalf. I can fully understand why you would get pretty ratty with these bureaucratic bungles – and fair enough.
But trust me, the association and the RTF are working very hard to advocate for the industry and it does make a difference.
One great development that came out of the first COVID-19 lockdown is that we are using the driver database we compiled then and are collaborating with Talent Central to help people in the transport industry to connect with new employment opportunities or training. This initiative is being looked after by NRC commercial transport specialist Richie Arber.
What we have planned with Talent Central is a huge step in the right direction to help support our industry and those people in it who are now looking for work because of COVID-19, but also for people from other sectors who may now look at the transport industry as an opportunity for future employment. T&D