Mainfreight CEO frustrated with KiwiRail, AT for not offering additional services

Friday, 17 April 2026

Mainfreight's chief executive says he is 'frustrated' at KiwiRail and Auckland Transport, and that the agencies could be doing more as the Middle East conflict sends fuel prices up.

Chief executive Don Braid told Morning Report moving freight via rail was more efficient than by truck, 'yet we haven't seen KiwiRail stand up to offer additional services'.

Mainfreight had been speaking to KiwiRail but was failing to get action, he said.

'We are trying, but [we're] frustrated to be perfectly honest.'

Auckland Transport also needed to do its bit, Braid said.

'Think about the amount of diesel idling that goes on because we can't use a bus lane.'

As The Post reported this week, many businesses are likely to have awkward conversations with trucking companies over the next two weeks as road hauliers seek to pass on extra costs they have incurred as a result of the diesel price spike.

Transporting NZ chief executive Dom Kalasih said most trucking companies would now have invoiced customers for their services in March, with many bills falling due around the 20th of the month.

Many if not most contracts between trucking companies and their customers would contain clauses that allowed the former to pass on at least some extra costs of fuel.

But Kalasih said some truckers that were working under fixed-price contracts were also seeking to recoup some of their extra costs from customers and he urged customers to be sympathetic to such requests.