Full Throttle News In Brief
Bite-sized summaries affecting transport across infrastructure, the workforce and just transition – the pathway to decarbonisation.
Infrastructure
Revenue Action Plan Project
A project team led by Ministry of Transport is working through the options to deliver the outcomes needed to address the growing gap between the revenue collected and the cost to deliver transport infrastructure.
The Revenue Action Plan will:
- Make better use of existing funding tools for the National Land Transport Fund (NLTF).
- Reform tolling legislation to support bringing forward infrastructure investment.
- Unlock new funding tools, including value capture.
- Transition all light vehicles to road user charges by as early as 2027.
NRC will be working to ensure changes increase the ability of the fund to deliver the infrastructure we need and that all road users pay their fair share of the costs.
We will also be looking for every opportunity to remove wasteful spending that erodes the ability of the fund to deliver. NRC is part of this project, and members can expect opportunities to provide feedback as policy firms up during 2025.
Auckland Transport steps up with a pothole promise
National Road Carriers has been consistently strong on the importance of maintaining our existing road assets. Councils receive 50% of roading funds recovered from road user charges from NZTA, and NRC always calls for councils to be disciplined in spending this on road maintenance and restoration.
Auckland Transport have announced a 24 hour pothole promise (see announcement below), and NRC members can play their part in keeping our roads in fit condition. We encourage members and the public to make good use of the pothole reporting hotline every time a pothole is spotted.
AT Pothole Promise
The pothole promise is one of the tangible, practical ways AT is working to keep our city moving. And while AT has always had quick response targets for pothole repairs, it now includes a new 24-hour response time for the region’s busiest main roadways which includes the strategic freight network.
AT hears your frustration when it comes to potholes and is committed to doing something about it.
AT manages around 7,000km of sealed roads. More than 1,000km of these roads have an average of 10,000 vehicle movements a day. These are our high-volume arterial roads.
AT’s pothole promise is:
To fix 95% of potholes on these key roads within 24 hours of notification
For all other sealed roads, AT will have a crew there within five days. A few might take a little longer as sometimes crews need to manage any traffic disruption, plan for a much larger repair or deal with other considerations.
AT can only fix potholes when we know about them, so please report any potholes you see, so AT can attend to them quickly.
You can report a pothole here at.govt.nz/potholepromise
Workforce
Contractor or Employee? Gateway test coming in 2025
Being introduced early 2025, a gateway test will be applied to establish if someone is an employee or a contractor.
Contractors make up a significant percentage of our industry and these changes will remove uncertainty for most cases, removing the need to drag a case through the courts.
The test has four requirements:
- a written agreement with the worker specifying they are an independent contractor
- the business must not restrict the worker from working for another business (including competitors)
- the business must not require the worker to be available to work on specific times of day or days, or for a minimum number of hours, or the worker can sub-contract the work
- the business must not terminate the contract if the worker does not accept an additional task or engagement
All these tests can be accommodated by a well-structured arrangement between companies and their contractors. As always if you need assistance contact one of the CTS Team 0800 686 777 or enquiries@natroad.co.nz
Trade Me and Seek accepting job ads from February 2025
Don’t leave your recruitment needs too late, as ad space is in hot demand. All the signs are pointing to the economy taking off again during 2025 and workers needed to support this recovery will be in short supply.
Lock in your teams and get your recruitment plans ready to rumble.
Just Transition - the pathway to decarbonisation
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