What does “good” mean?

Highlights of the week  

Last Friday we co-hosted a Road Freight Decarbonisation Update with Linfox at its Māngere headquarters. We heard from a diverse range of stakeholders and experts including: Hiringa and Electric Autobus on energy supply; Go Backload on logistics efficiency; Tyrewise on managing end-of-life tyres; EECA on supporting uptake of low-emission technologies; and Linfox on reducing its carbon footprint across the business, some of which included: solar energy production, lighting, building design, and fleet. 

We also launched our new edition of the Green Compact, which you can read here, reflecting our support of several proven strategies to decarbonise New Zealand’s road freight task. 

There were also trucks on show to give attendees the opportunity to take a look and get the feel of the zero-emission power trains. A huge thanks to the Linfox team, particularly Rob, Vanessa and Ruby, with the latter interrupting her leave to give her presentation as Linfox’s Environmental Sustainability Lead.  

Interestingly, Rob shared with me that Ruby was keen to support the event because arranging something like this would be too hard to do in Australia, so while I’m still hurting from the Wahs losing, it was good to see we can do some things better! 

On Monday, I joined a session with the Chairs of all the South Island Regional Land Transport Committees. Whilst the deferment of the Government Policy Statement is unhelpful to the process and development of the next National Land Transport Plan, it was still very useful to share our views on transport and discuss what mattered for freight. I think they’re also agreeable to our views on road funding, and seeing the state highways and local roads in our country as one cohesive network. 

On Tuesday, I presented at the Police Commercial Vehicle Safety Team Conference. I started in transport pretty much at the same time as the Commercial Vehicle Investigation Unit was established and had a lot to do with its head, Inspector Ian James. We regularly fronted industry panels together, him for Police, Lynn Sleath or Dave Bates for Transit, and me for LTSA (now NZTA).  

I still keep in touch with Ian as he arranges a Ministry Old Boys monthly lunch. I managed to find a presentation that Ian gave back in 2002, giving his views on what the unit needed in the future. I shared the main points from this 2002 presentation with the current team of Old Boys. It is interesting, but not surprising, that apart from more human resource, most of what Ian predicted would be needed has indeed been implemented. 

My main message to CVST was not dissimilar to what we ask of NZTA: consider taking more of a risk-based approach to enforcement. Granted, compliance is important, but there are important and subtle differences. 

I also was privileged to join the team for dinner and thank Mike Moloney who very shortly retires after 48 years in the Police. Mike has played a critical role in Standards and Guidelines and operationalising policy into on-road enforcement. He has always been a pleasure to work with, and we wish him all the best with retirement. 

On Thursday, alongside the AA and the Chartered Institute for Logistics and Transport we co-hosted the Election 2026 Transport Priorities Panel. There was a great turnout with the Auditorium in the National Library approaching capacity and Andy Foster, Ben Wylie-van Eerd, Cameron Luxton, Hon. Chris Bishop, Hon. Julie Ann Genter and Tangi Utikere duking it out.  

A positive thing for transport is that on most key issues, there is generally good cross-party agreement in terms of the why and the how. I also liked Andy Foster’s comment, “Freight is the lifeblood of our country.” 

However, there are differences among the parties in terms of the ‘what’. The devil’s in the detail and particularly with the different views on funding. More on this later. 

Good or bad? Maybe it’s not a binary issue  

On Monday morning Newstalk ZB wanted to chat about Minister Bishop’s announcement that a re-elected National government will fully fund the Belfast to Pegasus Motorway and Woodend Bypass.  

Newstalk wanted to know, “is it good?”. They had done some research and raised concerns about the $/km construction cost which to them, seemed high.  

Presuming it’s completed on budget, the B2P project will cost $73m/km. As a number this compares well with Ōtaki to north of Levin (Ō2NL) at $87.5m/km, however, it’s significantly higher than Transmission Gully which opened four years ago and cost of $46.3m/km.  

Bearing in mind TG was widely acknowledged as an extremely challenging engineering feat, it’s interesting that it has the lowest cost, even considering a 35 percent increase in road engineering costs as reported by the Infrastructure Commission.  

Unlike TG where the land had been Crown-designated for roading, Ō2NL has required land purchasing in the current market. Ō2NL also includes a relatively large number of bridges – 11 – which significantly ramps up the cost compared to a route that doesn’t require them. 

B2P will be good for those travelling the route as it reduces travel time, particularly during peak periods. It will also be good for all road users as the road will be built to modern design and safety standards. 

However, whether the cost is “good” in terms of value for money, and whether this project offers the best return on investment for improving productivity and our economy, and whether it’s the highest priority among all other roading projects – are all questions for NZTA.  

It’s interesting that these factors aren’t well understood, or at least if they are, then that evidence isn’t more easily available. This what we need much more of going forward.