NZTD News

State Highway 29 (SH29) Kaimai Range will be closed for 4 nights, from Sunday 15 June to Thursday 19 June, between 8pm and 3.30am each night. These closures are necessary to complete routine maintenance, including drain clearing, sign maintenance, road marking and surface repairs.

“We occasionally close SH29 for essential maintenance works. The full closures allow us to complete the work safety and efficiently - benefiting both road worker crews and road users,” says NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) System Manage...

TAIC’s Chief Investigator of Accidents, Naveen Kozhuppakalam, says substandard ships represent a real risk to their crew members, to New Zealanders – including coastal and harbour pilots, stevedores, and other contractors – and to New Zealand’s coastal environment. 

“The Commission found that the Shiling had a history of deficiencies and that it’s virtually certain the ship wasn’t seaworthy while in New Zealand.”

On 15 April 2023, the Shiling was under pilotage outbound from Wellington and had just initiated...

The Light Traffic Index (LTI) fell 0.5% in May and is up 0.3% versus a year ago. The more volatile Heavy Traffic Index (HTI) fell 3.0%, and is up 1.7% year on year. 

Light traffic (motorbikes, cars and vans) is generally a good indicator of the state of demand, as opposed to production. It typically provides a six-month lead on momentum in the economy, with variation reflecting discretionary spending on outings, movement of couriers and tradespeople etc. The trend in light traffic is mildly upward over recent mont...

After spending last week focused on port charges, this week I joined some of the NRC team in a port ride along, kindly hosted by Marlin Transport. The NRC team regularly take the opportunity to get up close and personal with the supply chain, and walk a mile in our members shoes. This is an invaluable way to experience first-hand what transport operators face.

We drove from Marlin Transport’s Auckland Airport depot into the port to collect two export containers and bring them back to the depot. Despite rain doing its b...

National road freight organisation Transporting New Zealand says this Saturday’s official opening of the Te Ahu a Turanga: Manawatū-Tararua Highway is great news for the freight industry, and the region’s communities. 

Chief executive Dom Kalasih says the highway will deliver a safe, reliable and resilient connection between the Manawatū and Tararua districts. Traffic will be able to use the highway from next week.

The highway replaces the Manawatū Gorge route, closed in 2017 due to slips. 

The ne...

I was one of three New Zealanders at the Heavy Vehicle Transport and Technology  HVTT18 symposium at Laval University, Quebec, Canada last week. It was a grim time for us all.

As we talked about what we heard from the speakers, the main feelings we shared were frustration and a bit of depression.

In fact, one of my Kiwi colleagues who has had a long association in the transport area, described his feeling as “despair”!

Our feelings were a result of seeing what other countries are doing and lamenting wh...