Freightways says new border tax on offshore goods unfair
Monday, 16 February 2026
NZX-listed logistics firm Freightways saw positive growth in revenue and earnings in its half year results out today ‒ but is fighting a rear-guard action against the Government’s new low-value goods levy, which it says is being unfairly applied.
From April 1, all imported and exported low-value goods worth less than $1000 coming into the country as commercial freight will be charged the low-value levy or tax of $2.21 per parcel sent.
Speaking to The Post, chief executive Mark Troughear said it was not the imposition of a levy or tax that was the problem, but the fact that the same thing coming as mail would cost a lot less, without the ability to have a full view of what’s being bought in.
“Let’s say you order a toothbrush from Temu ‒ not sure why you would, but let’s say you do ‒ that would attract the $2.21 sent commercially, but if it weighs say, 400g, it would cost around 60c to receive by mail [which incurs a $1.28 per kg charge],” he said.
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“When you talk to the minister and talk to people at customs, they really have trouble explaining why the difference in price,” he added. “We understand that there are some differences, but here’s the irony: if a toothbrush comes through us we declare the data ‒ who it is coming from and going to, how much it is worth ‒ yet if it goes through the main mail stream, they get none of that data.”
The move will not be hugely material to the business currently, and in any case, sees the cost moved to the customer. But it raises the spectre of freight companies losing business as customers choose to receive items by mail rather than courier. Firms like Freightways, as well as FedEx and DHL and others, are part of a working group lobbying MBIE for what Troughear calls a “level playing field”, although the chief executive said the group had not had much cut-through at present.
Freightways is also trying to establish its own mail channel as one way of mitigating the new levy. The company had its own mail service about 20 years ago, bringing in Royal Mail from the UK and Australian Post mail.
“We should be able to have one, we are permitted to, but again we are having the same challenges with MBIE and other departments over what is happening.”
Ugly freight
Overall in the half year, Freightways’ group revenue increased by 8.5% to $718.2 million, while net profit after tax increased by 17.2% to $52.5m, and basic earnings per share increased to 29.3 cents per share.
The largest part of Freightways is its express package and business mail division, which generates 82% of its revenue. The biggest local brand in this division is New Zealand Couriers.
This division’s revenue grew 10.4% in the half year reported today, to $604m, with net profit after tax of $56.6m, up 14%. The New Zealand part of the business saw item growth of 3%, in part because e-commerce has grown in popularity in a constrained economic environment.
Freightways is a bellwether stock, meaning it tends to track the NZ economy. On that basis, Troughear said the results in New Zealand reflected the “very early stages of the economic recovery we’re all hearing about”, although unpacking the numbers was also helpful.
He said NZ domestic customers were starting to trade up to more expensive or bigger volumes of services by somewhere between half a percent and a percent.
“It’s nothing to shoot the lights out for, but it is the opposite of what’s been happening for a while, and we would expect that to continue over time.”
On the flipside, in Australia where the company does around a third of its business, the company’s Allied Express business was going gangbusters and had muscled its way to the top of one specific niche of the courier business ‒ “ugly freight”. This was anything big, bulky and difficult to move, sent to the home.
“It’s hard to move this stuff as it needs special systems and vehicles and so forth - but there is quite a bit of growth in that market segment, and we are one of the leading firms doing it,” Troughear said.
Steady execution
Amova portfolio manager, Michael De Cesare, said Freightways’ double digit profit growth had been “broadly in line with expectation and market forecasts, reflecting steady execution – with cost control and integration discipline ‒ in a tough freight environment.”
“While customer sales were up, these reflect a slow and steady recovery and therefore the result may have disappointed those looking for a potentially stronger signal for the NZ economy.”
Clarification: The story has been amended to show that the levy applies to individual parcels, rather than per item. Each parcel attracts the levy but the parcel may contain multiple items.