The Last Mile

Dear Minister Woods,

I recently read the two briefing documents provided to you as incoming Minister of Transport by the Ministry of Transport, the BIMs, but had difficulty understanding them. Perhaps my difficulty can be explained simply because I do not have a degree in public policy nor am I versed in current-style management speak, but I note there was little attention paid to the major issues facing the road transport industry, so I have decided to draw one of these to your attention.

The value of the country’s roads, and of those who use them, can be compared to the arteries, veins and blood in our bodies. Just as arteries, veins and blood are vital to maintain the health of a person, so roads are vital to maintain the health of our nation. We know what happens to a person’s health when arteries and veins get damaged or are not able to move blood around the body the way they are supposed to; the person suffers a medical misadventure that can be life-changing, and in the worst case the person may die.

Hopefully though, before damaged arteries and veins become life-changing, medical intervention will have taken place. Our roads are rapidly becoming damaged to the stage that urgent intervention is needed before the damage is irreversible, and the patient dies – in this case though, the patient is the welfare of the country.

Minister, you need to look no further than the emerging trend to reduce the speed limits on some state highways because the authorities consider them unsafe to drive on at regular highway speeds. In itself, this is an indictment of past roading policies and funding priorities. It shows the need to prioritise funding into those areas that have the greatest impact on all of New Zealand, i.e. the fast and efficient movement of freight, the lifeblood of the country.

Page 11 of the Your Guide to the Transport System document discusses how you can deliver your transport priorities and gives examples of the key plans for your consideration. The plans cited include the New Zealand Rail Plan, the programme for road policing activities, the Rail Network Investment Plan, and the New Southern Sky plan to modernise New Zealand’s airspace and navigation system.

Attention to these plans may have good long-term benefits – delivery times of three to 10 years are mentioned – but the disgusting state of our roads is a fact today, and will not improve until the decision-makers stop theorising on what might be, put ideology to one side, and start applying good practical solutions to halt the insidious undermining of the lifesustaining network that is our roading system.

To this I would recommend that you instruct some of your senior transport officials to spend some quality time with those people for whom the road is their workplace, and who daily deliver the goods to almost every town throughout the country – not the industry representative associations, but the drivers themselves. Please never forget that regardless of the weather and natural disasters, road freight will find a way to get through.

The road transport industry pays for its use of the roading network through government-imposed charges and levies such as road user charges and vehicle registration. It does not mind doing this but expects the money it pays to be used for the purpose it was taken, i.e. construction and maintenance of the road network. To siphon some of this money off into feel-good projects for use by people who do not contribute to the cost is, in my opinion, bordering on immoral. It is akin to when the road-freight industry was regulated in 1936 to protect the railways.

The Your Guide to Opportunities and Challenges in the Transport System document outlines some of your responsibilities for the transport system in New Zealand. However, it does not appear to mention that one of your responsibilities is to ensure a roading network that is safe for moving freight.

Former United States senator and congressman Byron Dorgan said: “You can delegate authority, but you cannot delegate responsibility”. Minister, you are responsible for the state of the roads in New Zealand, you are responsible for fixing them, and you are responsible for ensuring they are, and remain, fit for purpose.

Yours sincerely,

The Accidental Trucker