Freight task productivity: because we’re failing to plan, we’re planning to fail
Regular Transport Minute readers will be familiar with me beating the drum on freight task productivity.
What’s the issue? Government agencies responsible for transport and productivity aren’t tasked or measured on it.
What’s the solution? Set a goal for improving freight task productivity, a plan to get there, and measure performance.
The stark reality that it is taking longer and longer to deliver goods in New Zealand is being ignored.
In a year announced by the government as the year of productivity and growth, slower movement of goods means our economy has one arm tied behind its back.
The Mayor of Auckland’s congestion report released this week shows that the average commuter will lose nearly three days (66 hours) sitting in congestion next year, based on approximately 20km per day. Truck drivers travelling 150km around the Auckland area each day will be measuring their time spent in congestion in weeks, not days.
In 2026 alone it’s estimated that $2.6 billion will leak out of our economy due to congestion, that’s not including compounding losses to date.
Despite declining freight task productivity throughout the country, there is no clear plan from central government and regional councils to improve supply chain efficiency. As the old adage goes, when we fail to plan, we plan to fail.
When I meet with government agencies, freight task productivity is top of my list. This week I met with Brett Gliddon, newly appointed CEO of NZTA, and Dean Kimpton, CEO of Auckland Transport, and it was the central point of our discussions.
Brett has spent his career at NZTA, he’s an engineer who brings a wealth of experience in road building and infrastructure management that we can all benefit from. Dean is sharply focussed on ensuring traffic movement efficiencies throughout Auckland’s network and arterial road corridors.
NZTA has a team working on strategic freight, and Auckland Transport has a defined strategic freight network, but as I understand it there are no explicit targets for freight task productivity.
Both meetings involved robust conversations about what’s required, but what’s clear is the Ministry of Transport needs to prioritise freight productivity.
I’d like to share a recent example of how easily freight task productivity can be impacted when overlooked.
A couple of weeks ago the Minister of Transport, Chris Bishop, provided $200m to Auckland for the building of level crossings to support the 2026 opening of the City Rail Link – a welcome move.
Our media release supported the funding as it’s critical to the CRL’s success. We did, however, point out that this should have been part of the initial plan.
It doesn’t matter if you look at the CRL, the Cook Strait Ferry, or a second harbour crossing for Auckland, we have a fundamental planning issue in this country where we are allowing individual transport mode decisions to be made as though they exist in a vacuum. This approach to infrastructure investment has a growing track record of escalating cost and lost productivity all due to narrow vision planning that doesn’t take into consideration how each project interconnects with the broader transport network.
Our modern transport system is a highly-interwoven network of multi-modal road, rail, maritime and aviation infrastructure.
It requires sophisticated, complex and multi-level thinking to develop it effectively.
Today’s transport leaders such as Dean and Brett, have inherited the consequences of these silo-based decisions taken over the last decades, and are wrestling with getting our networks back on track.
We don’t need to look far to see what better looks like. Australia has a Freight and Supply Chain Strategy that delivers a National Action Plan. They have an industry advisory body with representatives from road, rail, freight, ports and maritime working closely with transport and infrastructure senior officials to develop multi-modal transport, infrastructure, and supply chain systems.
Let’s break the cycle of pain for future generations of transport users in New Zealand and do the same here.
Justin
Justin Tighe-Umbers
Chief Executive | National Road Carriers Assn
DDI: +64 9 636 2951
