Delays and problems with the upper South Island’s alternative highway have prompted some truck drivers to refuse to use it or quit the industry, Road Transport Forum head Ken Shirley says.
“There’s a lot of pressure on the truck drivers and some are refusing to work that route and some are just quitting at a time when we’re desperately short of drivers,” he says, Radio NZ reports.
Shirley says the industry is already short of about 2000 drivers.
Thousands more trucks and cars have been diverted through Marlborough’s inland highway after a 7.8 magnitude quake on November 14 last year closed State Highway 1 through Kaikoura.
A 5.4 magnitude quake there on Sunday had no further damage reported.
Driving the alternative highway has been a dodgem of potholes, blown-out tyres and endless road works, truckers say after raising concerns about the alternative route between Picton and Christchurch earlier this year.
The NZ Transport Agency has budgeted about $60 million for repairing and maintaining a highway never designed to cope with the volume of vehicles and heavy trucks, which soared from an average 400 to 2000 daily through St Arnaud. In Murchison the figure doubled to more than 4000 vehicles daily.
Shirley says driver shortages are compounded by the industry failing to attract younger people.
“The average age of a heavy motor vehicle driver is 54 – you’ve got a lot of retirement looming and young people are just not wanting to join our industry.”
Shirley says traditionally long hours and lack of pay increases may have put many off.
Auckland trucking boss Chris Carr says the road conditions have created added pressures, including logistics around ensuring drivers don’t exceed their maximum daily hours on the road.
“What we used to do with a truck based in Christchurch – we’d go up to Picton, return to Christchurch and then a different driver would take it back up again. Potentially we were doing two trips in one day.”
Carr says they are now doing one trip in two days, and the extra distance and time has cut productivity by 25%.
“Obviously that pushes costs up because you’re accommodating people and what used to be a five-hour trip is now between eight and a half to nine-and-a-half hours. It’s not possible to do a return trip in a day.”
A St Arnaud mechanic and tow truck operator says he doesn’t expect much improvement for the next couple of years. Alistair Nicholls has been operating a 24-hour roadside rescue service, and has had to expand his business since the quake to cope.
“All the trucking firms I’ve come across are saying they’re committed to being on this road for the next two years at least. To me, that’s too long for the standard of repairs that are being done,” Nicholls says.
December’s planned re-opening of State Highway 1 through Kaikoura is expected to take about 2000 trucks a month off the inland road, but Shirley says it’s likely to be a while before the highway is operating at optimum levels.
More may come from the Road Transport Forum annual conference in Hamilton on November 10-11.
