Constant restructuring gutted NZTA of experienced staff, says Road Transport Association

Monday, 15 October 2018

The road transport industry says constant restructuring has gutted the New Zealand Transport Agency of experienced staff and industry is paying the price for that. 

Transport Minister Phil Twyford has announced a review of the agency (NZTA) to be conducted by law firm Meredith Connell, saying NZTA had failed to properly check up on companies who certify vehicle safety, and follow up on problems identified.

Road Transport Association chief executive Dennis Robertson said constant restructuring over the past 10 to 15 years had taken its toll on NZTA which had lost a lot of experienced staff.

'All those heavy motor vehicle people with this expertise in NZTA, they've all gone, they've lost that intellectual capacity and they haven't replaced it.

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'My take on it is that they haven't had the skilled mechanical engineering people in NZTA that can go out and look at these things and say, 'we have a problem here',' said Robertson.

That was vital because transport operators relied heavily on the knowledge of independent certifiers, two of whom had been suspended by NZTA over tow bar standards.

The fact that NZTA had decided to hire an extra 22 staff, including two additional auditors, indicated there was a need to more closely 'check the checkers,' he said.

'The last thing in the world we want is someone pointing the finger at the industry and saying it's all your fault, when we're saying we're only doing what we're told we're supposed to do.

'I wouldn't have thought there would be a driver or truck operator that would challenge [a certifier]. They accept that these people know what they're talking about.'

NZTA chairman Michael Stiassny​ said self regulation and a focus on educating operators instead of enforcing the rules had not worked.

While there were no accidents that could be shown to relate to these issues at this stage, it was clear there were more unsafe vehicles on the road that there should have been, and of 850 open compliance files, 152 higher risk cases were being given priority.

However, Robertson said the educational approach taken by NZTA since about 2008 had been successful and there had not been been a huge increase in unsafe vehicles on the road. 

'If that was the case we'd be having crash, after crash, after crash, and there would be lots of carnage out there, but there's not.

'In fact the crash rate is dropping, and mechanical issues in terms of crash rates for heavy motor vehicles is as low as 6 or 7 per cent.'

Trucking Association chief executive David Boyce said a crack down on certification standards could cause some 'pain' if it led to vehicles being taken off the road.

Larger fleets could cope if they had to park up some of their equipment, but it was much harder for the large numbers of small operators with less than five trucks.

'It might take their business pretty close to the wire.'

'If their equipment is certified as compliant and then they find it's not right, they're blindsided like everybody else. '

NZTA is also encouraging transport industry workers or members of the public to blow the whistle on non-compliant operators by setting up an anonymous independently monitored phone line where people can report their concerns.  

Boyce said he had no problem with this initiative which was similar to the system for reporting bad driver behaviour.