Maritime Union of New Zealand

The Maritime Union of New Zealand is backing calls to tighten up industry regulations to protect truck drivers and the travelling public.

Maritime Union General Secretary Joe Fleetwood says a report in the Sunday Star Times yesterday graphically outlined the dangers of over-worked owner-drivers pushed to the limits in an aggressive and competitive market.

“This is the reality of a individualized industry where drivers do not have the protections of union membership and are being exploited in a hyper-competitive environment by the big companies they contract to.”

Mr Fleetwood says that in the process the lives and safety not just of truck drivers, but of New Zealanders and their families on the road, are put at risk of serious injury and death.

Long hours, fast speeds and deferral of expensive maintenance on vehicles were all factors causing problems.

He says the Government push for more heavy trucks on the road, when combined with a deregulated industry, was a recipe for carnage on New Zealand roads.

Mr Fleetwood says the whole owner-driver model needed to be examined, as most owner-drivers were simply workers who had been pushed into a dependent contractor model.

Pay rates, hours of work and industry regulation all needed to be on the table for discussion, he said.

He says the Maritime Union would continue to push for a balanced transport strategy that saw the bulk of heavy and long distance cargo transported on coastal shipping and rail, rather than creating congestion and hazards through heavy trucking.

“The current Government’s obsession with heavy trucking is backward, socially irresponsible and environmentally harmful, and we need a new direction for New Zealand transport.”

The Maritime Union would be working with Labour’s Transport Safety spokesperson Darien Fenton on the issue.

The Maritime Union is backing Green Party calls for the Government to reconsider its push to put oversized trucks on New Zealand roads.

Maritime Union General Secretary Trevor Hanson says the Government is obviously not concerned at the extra deaths and injuries that will occur as a result on New Zealand roads.

“Has the Government considered the personal losses and increased costs in medical care and ACC payments resulting from accidents? Has it weighed the environmental costs and calculated the extra emissions that juggernaut trucks will produce?”

Mr Hanson says local ratepayers will be paying the bill to realign bridges, repair roads, and be responsible for all the future damage caused by the introduction of bigger trucks.

“Large trucking companies seem to be pulling the Government’s strings and their profits are being subsidized by the taxpayer and the ratepayer.”

He says the Government has abdicated its responsibility by completely abandoning any attempt to develop an integrated, long term transport solution for New Zealand that recognizes the economic, social and environmental importance of coastal shipping and thriving regional ports.

“Coastal shipping requires no infrastructure upkeep – by sailing on the ‘blue highway’ it does away with the need for the vast expense of fixing roads for oversize trucks.”

The Government has directed enormous resources towards roading but has slashed the already tiny budget for support of environmentally friendly coastal shipping.

Under the current direction, it is estimated bigger trucks will make at least 620,000 trips on our roads each year.

Mr Hanson says coastal ships can carry 1000 containers, keep extra traffic off roads, reduce dependence on fossil fuels, lower carbon emissions, are noise free and require no infrastructure maintenance as they sail on the ‘blue highway’.

“The Government has reverted to a backward looking, short term approach which will have major negative consequences for New Zealand. New Zealanders must start to get active to defend their future before we are locked into the roadhog’s charter.”

The Maritime Union says regional ports have been hit hard because of a decision by Fonterra to rail goods to distant ports.

Maritime Union General Secretary Trevor Hanson says the moves have already led to notices of major redundancies in the port of Timaru, greater casualization of the workforce, and was threatening the viability of some ports.

“This issue cannot be dealt with by ports continuing to compete each other into the ground. It must be addressed by national co-ordination of our transport system, not the wasteful, insecure and chaotic mess we have at the moment.”

He says that Fonterra is running for cover on the issue and their explanations have not satisfied people in the regional ports affected by their recent decisions.

Mr Hanson says there are industry concerns that Fonterra may be getting extremely low rates to transport goods by rail.

He says while such a situation might suit Fonterra, regional ports and coastal shipping were being disadvantaged.

As rail was publicly owned, this could mean people and businesses in those communities would be effectively paying for work to be taken away from them.

Mr Hanson says it’s not a case of rail versus sea.

“The Maritime Union is a big supporter of rail being in public ownership, and public investment in rail, but it has to be part of an integrated transport system, not just another way for the big operators to play off ports and transport modes against each other.”

He says the Maritime Union supports the use of coastal shipping and rail working together, rather than the Government’s emphasis on “unsustainable, polluting and inefficient” heavy trucking.

The Maritime Union of New Zealand has slammed Government proposals to allow larger and heavier trucks on New Zealand roads as irresponsible and short-sighted.

The Union says New Zealand needs to promote low-impact, environmentally efficient modes such as coastal shipping and rail to handle the growth in freight, not bigger trucks.

Maritime Union of New Zealand General Secretary Trevor Hanson says proposed changes to land transport rules would see larger, heavier trucks dominating New Zealand roads for years to come.

“Roads will become more dangerous and more crowded leading to more and worse accidents – more blood on the road.”

He says using coastal shipping for heavy goods would make roads safer as there were already many accidents involving trucks on New Zealand roads.

Public submissions on the Government proposal close this week.

Mr Hanson says the trucking plan is doubly short sighted as increases in fuel costs and emissions will soon hit New Zealand hard, and road transport is the least preferable option.

He says the Government appears to be “living in a fantasy world.”

“Every day you can read in the newspaper that reliance on fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions are placing us in severe danger, yet the Government wants to make us more dependent on outmoded and harmful transport modes such as big trucks.”

“Ordinary New Zealanders will end up subsidizing the increased charges for transport and the costs of repairing the damage to our roads from heavier use.”

The Union says that it will be difficult to upgrade all New Zealand roads and the impact of massive trucks on small rural roads would be especially serious.

Mr Hanson says if the plan goes ahead it would “torpedo” any hopes of a modern, integrated transport system for New Zealand.

“Pushing mega-trucks as the basis of transport in New Zealand is really a backwards step that will have negative effects in the medium to long term.”

“Rising fuel costs and environmental pressures are already major problems, and will soon cancel out any so-called productivity gains.”

The Maritime Union represents workers on the New Zealand waterfront, and in the New Zealand shipping and offshore industry.

The Government proposals can be viewed here