Productivity in Auckland could be boosted by at least $1.3 billion per annum by optimising the use of the road networks.
An NZIER report commissioned by the Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA), Auckland International Airport, Infrastructure NZ, Ports of Auckland and the National Road Carriers Association took a detailed look at the social and economic costs of congestion to Auckland’s lifestyle and economy.
The report found if Auckland traffic could move on average between 50.5 km per hour to 56.8 km per hour during week days it would benefit the Auckland economy by nearly $3.5 million per day.
The survey funding organisations are united in the view that there is a pressing case for decongestion measures to be introduced in Auckland now, not in the six to ten-year time frame currently being contemplated by both central and local government.
All agreed the size of the productivity prize and liveability gains for Auckland and the scale of the problem demanded action.
NZIER took a sophisticated model that can break down the impact per business sector and applied Auckland Transport’s latest 2016 traffic flow information to the problem that is increasing and rapidly strangling Auckland and its economy.
“What business is telling us and what we see in the numbers is that congestion has worsened exponentially in the past three to five years,” says EMA chief executive officer Kim Campbell.
“Our EMA members who took part in focus groups put the productivity loss in the 20-30% bracket so what the above figures show is the average productivity loss across the entire population of Auckland,” says Campbell
Some of the highlighted costs were:
– Hiring 20% more staff to carry out the same volume of work
– Trucking firms making fewer runs over fixed routes over longer time frames to deliver less volume of product with a near 30% productivity loss
– Service firms establishing depots around the city, at significant costs, to meet service promises i.e. one-hour replacements or deliveries
– Trucking firms refusing to deliver to some parts of the city described as black holes for their vehicles
According to Infrastructure NZ CEO Stephen Selwood, the actual productivity gains may be even higher.
“The model only measures congestion on five of seven days, and of course business is a seven-day a week operation. It also only values your leisure trips at less than half the value of work time, a value I’m sure many Aucklanders would agree is less than the actual cost,” says Selwood.
“I’m also very concerned that the Auckland Transport Alignment Plan (ATAP) only sets its sights on not making congestion worse in the next 30 years and its ten-year time-frame for introducing congestion charging is just too far away,” he says.
Ports of Auckland chief executive officer Tony Gibson stressed the report showed a need for a multifaceted approach to reducing congestion to boost productivity.
“There is no one answer to the problem,” says Gibson. “We need to attack congestion with everything we’ve got: investment in road, rail, public transport, technology, demand management and so on.
“We also need to be much smarter and think further ahead in how we plan transportation for the future,” he says.
National Road Carriers Association chief executive officer David Aitken pointed out that lifestyle issues caused by congestion as a fundamental difficulty in recruiting in the freight sector.
“The Road Freight industry has seen increasing congestion for some years. The fact that travel times have increased 47% in just three years and is only going to get worse if we don’t do something is a clear sign we need to be thinking about solutions and taking actions now. Productivity has declined in an already tight market,” says Aitken.
“Five years ago, a truck driver could make a living on about 50 hours per week, but now with congestion that’s up to 70 hours a week and people do want to spend time with family rather than sitting in Auckland traffic. At a time when it’s hard to get drivers, we are losing them as they don’t want to be sitting in congestion all day,” he says.
While all the chief executive officers acknowledge that better progress is being made that has been the case in the past, authorities need to demonstrate a much greater sense of urgency.
“That Auckland experiences worse congestion than cities up to five times its size is an indictment on poor planning and inadequacy of investment which goes back decades,” they say.
