Northland logging company given reprieve
A Northland logging company with 116 speed and traffic-related offences in the last four years has won the right to stay on the road for now.
On March 15, the Transport Agency moved to revoke Whangarei-based Stan Semenoff Logging’s transport service licence over longstanding safety concerns.
The company was told to stop work from March 22.
However, Marc Corlette, the lawyer representing the company told the High Court in Auckland that the Transport Agency had misinterpreted the law when it issued the stop work order.
The agency’s action was the result of issues relating to driver fatigue and behaviour, breaches of work time and rest time rules, problems with logbooks, and a long list of traffic offences.
The company had been told to lift its safety standards since a safety audit in 2016. A second audit was conducted in 2017.
Lawyer Robin McCoubrey, representing the agency, told the court public safety needed to be prioritised over commercial interest.
‘‘These types of licences are a privilege, not a right,’’ he said.
‘‘We don’t want to wait for an accident.’’ McCoubrey said the company had been given time to address the safety concerns but there had been a consistent failure to provide a climate where safety was paramount.
Corlette said the company had taken significant steps since 2016 to address the agency’s concerns and a number of drivers had either been disciplined or dismissed for safety and logbook breaches.
Changes included the installation of equipment that controlled the acceleration of trucks.
Justice Mark Woolford said he attached value to the good level of compliance rating the company had received under the Transport Agency’s own operational rating system.
The judge said he also believed revoking the service licence would have a catastrophic impact on the company, which was likely to lead to significant job losses.
Justice Woolford suspended the agency’s order to revoke the company’s transport service licence, pending a judicial review and further arguments. Stan Semenoff Logging is the largest logging company in Northland, responsible for transporting about half of the logs in the region.
The company was the 11th to face revocation action since the Transport Agency moved to take a tougher stance on safety.