Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand

New Zealand’s shortage of truck drivers has led to the development of the Road Transport Forum’s Te ara ki tua Road to success traineeship, aimed at assisting road transport operators to recruit new trainees and overcome the industry’s considerable workforce problems.

The RTF administers Road to success and is working with the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) on placing registered job seekers and those affected by COVID-19 with road transport operators. This is not the only source of trainees however, and any suitable person can sign up for Road to success once matched with a willing employer. The traineeship lasts a year.

“A huge amount of work has gone into working w...

WorkSafe NZ is increasing its focus on the use of vehicles at work sites, in response to the large number of vehicle-related fatal and serious injury accidents occurring each year.

Two new pieces of guidance for PCBUs (persons conducting a business or undertaking) in managing vehicle and worksite safety have been released – covering seatbelts at work and site traffic management. 

This is important information for all transport operators and RTF has picked out some of the key points. More information, including the complete guidelines are available at www.worksafe.govt.nz 

Seatbelts at work

Workers should wear seatbelts whenever they are using vehicles...

The freight industry and the New Zealand economy in general require a plan for how we are going to open up and recover from the impacts of COVID-19.

Other countries are moving ahead with COVID-19 recovery plans and NZ needs to follow suit and move past the rapid alert level changes we have recently experienced. 

In New South Wales, flareups in Sydney have been contained without a citywide lockdown or closing businesses. Instead, the focus is on lockdowns on the most affected suburbs and limits on gatherings – not banning them altogether.

Here, there doesn’t seem to be much evidence of this kind of planning – or even a way to reduce the huge holdups of freight at...