This week I’ve spent an energy boosting couple of days in Christchurch attending our hugely successful Teletrac Navman Technology, Maintenance and Safety Conference & Exhibition at Te Pae. With over 600 attendees including 130 students, 36 speakers, a strong contingent from Australia, and the media in tow – it was a fantastic event to be at.
We got underway with Minister for ACC and Mental Health, and Associate Minister of Transport Hon. Matt Doocey who opened the conference with aplomb, talking about the huge focus the government has on improving productivity and roading. Minster of Transport Simeon Brown also beamed in, talking about his priorities for the road freight sector.
I met with people from every part of the road transport industry, and hugely enjoyed speaking with the exhibitors on the stands, and delegates from all parts of the industry – transport operators, maintenance, suppliers, government and school students at the careers morning. There was a great energy in the room, and it showed the best parts of this fantastic industry.
I learned a huge amount from our presenters on so many topics, from improving productivity on performance-based standards, future fuels, AI, looking after our people, and the current state of the transport economy.
A personal highlight was being in the panel discussion with my counterparts from Groundspreaders, Heavy Haulage, the Crane Association, Chartered Instititue of Logistics and Transport, and of course the NZ Trucking Association. Dave McCoid from NZ Trucking Magazine hosted the panel, teasing out some great insights from about how each organisation best represents our enormous industry. We all agreed having aligned, multiple voices to represent the broad and specialised needs of road transport, and multi-modal transport was the best way to work with government. I’m looking forward to working together more closely with these associations who are doing a great job on behalf of their members.
I’d like to personally thank all of the speakers who attended and shared their wisdom, Teletrac Navman, all our sponsors and the exhibitors for making it the event the huge success it was.
Lastly a heartfelt thank you to Dave, Carol, Katie, John, Debbie, Bill and the team at NTA, and to James, Paula, Steve and Woody from NRC for all your efforts over the past few months. You did an outstanding job.
Justin
Justin Tighe-Umbers
CEO | National Road Carriers Assn
DDI: +64 9 636 2951
