Source: Radio New Zealand
Transporting New Zealand chief executive Dom Kalasih. RNZ / Phil Pennington
Transporting New Zealand says the government needs to loosen restrictions for heavy vehicles without delay.
Four changes are being worked on in case of a move up to Phase 2 of the national fuel plan.
This included allowing more weight on some trucks to facilitate fewer trips, allowing normal licences for heavy electric utes, relaxing time and access restrictions for over-dimension vehicles and removing some restrictions on the routes that over-dimension vehicles could travel.
Transporting New Zealand chief executive Dom Kalasih said loosening the weight restrictions would unlock extra productivity in the applicable and save several million litres of diesel.
“You could actually avoid around 10 million kilometres of heavy travel.”
He also welcomed proposed changes to rules around over dimension vehicles but said heavy haulage was a speciality area and would affect fewer vehicles.
He urged government ministers not to wait until Phase 2 to take action.
“It can be picked up straight away. The vehicles we’re looking at, they’ve got spare capacity.
“We shouldn’t be waiting for things to get bad before we actually do things that make sense.”
Transport Minister Chris Bishop (L) and Regulation Minister David Seymour. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
On Monday Regulation Minister David Seymour and Transport Minister Chris Bishop said submissions were being developed so they could be quickly implemented if the government moved to Phase 2 of its response.
“We are still in Phase 1 of the National Fuel Response Plan, but we don’t want a repeat of the Covid-19 lockdowns. Doing the work to boost fuel efficiency now helps ensure we can stay in Phase 1 for as long as possible, causing the least disruption to Kiwis,” said Seymour.
Bishop said concerns over weight restrictions were widespread in the freight sector.
“In the short term, even small increases in permitted loads could reduce the number of trips needed, saving time, lowering costs, and reducing fuel use,” Bishop said.
“We need to balance that with safety and network impacts, but there are sensible changes we can make that will lift productivity without compromising standards.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
