Just like the way corporate dairy farmers have endangered us geopolitically with their enslavement to China for basic bitch milk powder, the political muscle of the Trucking Industry are now a national security threat to us as well…
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- The 2021 Canterbury floods extended the travel time of trucks from two to 13 hours and added nearly 900km to freight routes between Christchurch and Timaru.
- Trucks carry about 93% of New Zealand’s domestic freight.
- Rail and coastal shipping need multiple handling points, unlike direct road transport.
In the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle, the driving time between Napier and Wairoa stretched from 90 minutes to more than six hours, causing major supply chain delays. Retail prices rose and shoppers faced empty shelves.
Natural hazards such as earthquakes and flooding can wreak havoc on Aotearoa New Zealand’s freight system. These crises can cause extensive road damage, isolating communities and creating disruptions in supply chain operations.
Cyclone Gabrielle was by no means a one-off. The 2021 flooding in Canterbury, for example, forced trucks to travel nearly 900 extra kilometres between Christchurchand Timaru, extending the travel time from two to 13 hours.
…the corporate dairy farmers have enslaved us to China, and the Trucking Industry have managed to make their interests so huge that they endanger our national security.
Shouldn’t the Left be looking to smash monopolies, duopolies and oligopolies?
Where is this free market the right always whine about?
I’m not looking for socialism from the NZ Government, I’m just looking for basic regulated capitalism?
What has the Truckling Industry been able to bribe their interests over the common good of NZ?
Here we go again – trucking companies want more state subsidies for their road-destroying businesses
Here’s the truth for the Truckers. the millisecond your bosses can dump you for driverless Trucks, you are all out the door!
Here’s some more truth, global warming is happening and it is producing more destructive storms that will keep hitting our infrastructure. What we need is State funded Rail and Costal Shipping to be given a lot more subsidisation to counter the influence of the Trucking Industry so that we have actual reliance for the country.
Why are monopolised Industries given so much political power to the point they threaten the well being of the entire country?
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KiwiRail has been politically hijacked by the roading lobby and the Natz to provide the lowest possible (and barely plausible) barrier to entry for increased road freight. They are so hopeless at moving freight that it makes it easier and easier for the road freight companies to expand and expand. They are adept at hobbling rail (e.g. turning IRex from a potential competitive advantage for rail to self-sabotaging it so road freight can reign supreme) from within while at the same time pretending that be ‘fighting the fight’ for rail. BS.
While self driving trucks may be possible I doubt that they would replace local delivery and even for between cities there will still be aspects that need a person involved. I doubt that we will see any major expansion of the rail network and shipping only works for places with a decent port so trucks are here to stay for the foreseeable future.We should concentrate on regulations that make their use safe and efficient, the access to decent public transport in busy cities would be top of my wish list as a way to reduce road congestion although the way we build cities and spread out the employment and houses makes that difficult also.
Self driving trucks. That can’t be a Bonnie idea surely! Don’t even think it.
I completely agree for a change.
Our main highways are over run with more and bigger long haul trucks doing 10-20 000 times the road damage as a car. They are slow and add to driver frustration, and dangerous adding massively to risk of death in an accident. They close roads when they tip over.
The National party is their pet party and their interests always trump the general public, always.
If only Labour weren’t a front for Maori nationalism and the alphabet people and completely incompetent , there might be hope for common sense and for rail and sea to be utilised far more, but we saw their policies on this go absolutely nowhere and kiwi rail get even worse.
I can see no party in parliament fixing the trucking issues unfortunately.
The trucking companies have been calling the shots for along long time. Labour should have done something about it when they had an overwhelming majority. They didn’t. I also do not understand how National was able to overturn the ferry agreement already underway and how the port infrastructure wasn’t factored in the whole shebang from the get go….the cost blowout is billshit organisation who are those fuckin deal makers and politicians that signed off on that. Oh yes, that’s right Winston Peters?
We had a rail system that worked, it was hijacked and destroyed, or nearly. Fed Farmers, Transport and National are the vandals responsible. Labour is just as complicit and needs to wake up and put a working renewed country wide rail freight and passenger plan into place, get elected and then bloody well DO IT!!
I saw a study on the greater auckland blog where the person pointed out 75% of NZ is within a rail line .So if that is the case why do we need long haul trucks .
Following the Kaikoura earthquake the Adern Government did a deal with selected coastal shipping companies in an attempt to make our transport system more durable. The MV Rangitata ( I think) arrived on the coast and was fortunately just in time to pick up a 3 month contract serving the Gisborne Hawke Bay area post cyclone Gabriele. This government could never be so competent!
Nats in charge for the kaikoura earthquake, not Labour (who I despise deeply don’t worry), Nats didn’t add more passing lanes or future proofing of the road, they enlarged the 2 tunnels to allow an increase in truck size. Labour then decreased the speed limit.
Progress.
Why are monopolised Industries given so much political power to the point they threaten the well being of the entire country?
The million dollar question. I’m tempted to say – in relation to the trucking industry – that NZ Inc doesn’t have the capital to develop alternatives; long ago it sold out to offshore interests. Even before neoliberalism NZ was always reliant on primary products with little added value. Sure we now have niche areas, wine, horse breeding a bit of tech related stuff, other stuff you need to scour the business pages for, but its at local level and hardly enough to put really big bucks in the bank. The greatest travesty is the wool industry; what an opportunity lost – fuck synthetic fibres for eternity; and the unwitting chemists who enabled synthetics to made from crude oil. Science at its best! No.
No doubt about it, NZ is a nice place to live; believe me, I’ve lived in a number of places. But not are we only cursed (or blessed?) by the tyranny of distance from markets but also by a complex geography. Rail too costly to maintain? Well, I’m encouraged by GW’s comments, so the infrastructure apparently exists; less so the investment to get it up to scratch and to commit to maintenance. Privatization was a complete failure and now the State owned-asset simply won’t stand up to the trucking industry; so road it is. And the trucking business knows this. Maximise profits and socialise costs. Works every time.
Anyone out there remember the actual performance of NZ Railways, back in its gerrymandered, protected, subsidized, heyday? Care to share?
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