Open letter to Government authorities: Please consider road freight
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN IN GOVERNMENTAL AUTHORITY – including the Minister of Transport, the Minister of Infrastructure and Building, their ministries and departments….and mayors and councils of cities and towns, and your transport and planning departments:
When you are planning transport routes within and between cities and towns, and new developments – including houses, shops, schools and industry – please consider how we are going to transport building supplies in the first instance…
And, secondly, how we are going to transport food, clothing and medicines, as well as imported parts for our industries and exports to our trading partners overseas.
It seems blindingly obvious that the transport of goods should be factored into transport and infrastructure plans. But, from our perspective in the road transport industry, whenever there has been talk about transport recently, the focus has been 99% about how people move from A to B in cars, buses, trains, bikes or by foot – with little consideration of freight.
Two multi-billion dollar announcements in March highlighted the scale of this negligence.
The $31billion Auckland Transport Alignment Project (ATAP) report about the future of transport in our biggest city over the next 10 years, announced on March 12 by Minister of Transport Michael Wood and Mayor of Auckland Phil Goff, is practically silent on road freight.
There was one small paragraph about road freight buried in this landmark report, which focused almost entirely on transitioning people from travelling in private cars to public transport, walking or cycling (which we support, by the way).
Despite a National Road Carriers representative sitting on an Auckland Transport advisory committee, our views were not sought or represented in the ATAP report. There is almost no mention of strategic freight routes that will enable trucks to move around the city more easily to deliver the supplies we need for daily life. Everything we consume is delivered by multiple truck trips from seaport or airport to distribution centres, and then on to retail outlets or direct to homes.
There was no mention of the long-delayed, all important East-West link project, between the Nelson St interchange at SH20 and the Mt Wellington interchange on SH1 – with connections to local roads in Onehunga and Penrose. Nor was there any mention of upgrades to other strategic arterial routes including Favona Road, which is a Level 1B route (second-highest priority) – servicing 2021 transport on a
1960s road network.
The second major announcement that will require a much more robust road freight infrastructure was the Government’s plan to build tens of thousands of new houses, announced by Prime Minister
Jacinda Ardern on March 23. The proposed increased level of house construction will require a corresponding increase in construction supply traffic….and our current roading plans do not allow for this.
We acknowledge that part of the Government’s housing announcement was a $3.8bn Housing Acceleration Fund for vital infrastructure, but we are yet to see how much of that is tagged for road freight infrastructure.
The Government is planning to boost apprenticeships, which will mean increased worker traffic that cannot be accommodated by public transport. And when each housing development is completed, often in formerly rural areas, there will be an increase in supermarket delivery vehicles, as well as waste, recycling and other utility vehicles.
The problem with not giving due consideration to road freight is that the authorities’ hoped-for improvements from these announcements cannot be realised unless the transport of building supplies, consumables, exports and imports is taken into account. The roads in our cities and towns will remain clogged and new housing developments will take years longer than necessary.
Our plea to you transport and infrastructure authorities is to talk to us – the road freight industry. We are Kiwis who want to see New Zealand flourish. We operate at the coalface of transport. We are open-minded to change – for example we are promoting industry initiatives to reduce carbon emissions from heavy transport to address climate change.
From our perspective, road transport is going to be crucial to deliver building supplies and goods for the foreseeable future. We want to ensure our onroad experience and knowledge contributes to making road transport as effective and efficient as it can possibly be.
On behalf of the road transport industry.
Yours sincerely
David Aitken
T&D