Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Billy Clemens: Transporting NZ Policy Head on the trucking industry wanting NZTA to have the power to impound dangerous vehicles

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Billy Clemens: Transporting NZ Policy Head on the trucking industry wanting NZTA to have the power to impound dangerous vehicles · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The trucking industry wants tougher rules for unsafe vehicles. An
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Auckland driver was jailed for manslaughter after his banned truck
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: with failed the brakes killed the road worker. Billy Clemens
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: is with Transporting end Z joins me this morning, get.
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  Speaker 2: A Billy, I killed O Ryan.
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  Speaker 1: So this was a pretty devastating case, wasn't it. So
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  Speaker 1: guy basically has a dodgy truck and then breaks fail
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  Speaker 1: and it rolls and hits a road worker.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, Look, I'd just like to start by offering
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  Speaker 2: my condolences to the final of Jonathan Walters, who was
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  Speaker 2: the road worker a year who was killed. This was
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  Speaker 2: a case. This death resulted after a truck's brakes failed.
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  Speaker 2: The operator and driver of this truck, mister Ali, knew
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  Speaker 2: that the vehicle had braking issues and the vehicle that
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  Speaker 2: actually been subject to to non operation orders prior to
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  Speaker 2: this event. Despite this, mister Ali had actually gone ahead
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  Speaker 2: and obtained new registration plates for this vehicle that he
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  Speaker 2: knew to be on safe and went and made modifications
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: so it could complete further work. And the judge described
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  Speaker 2: this as grossly, grossly reckless and it's had really tragic
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  Speaker 2: consequences for mister Walters and his family.
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  Speaker 1: What do you want change? What could fix that?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? I think there's three really important things to be
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  Speaker 2: helpful here. So firstly would be actually be a more
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  Speaker 2: rigorous process to who's permitted to operate a road freight
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  Speaker 2: transport businesses in the first place. So in order to
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  Speaker 2: operate a good transport business you need to hold a
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  Speaker 2: TSL license. And we were actually transporting New Zealand or
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  Speaker 2: at Select Committee last month making the point that there's
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  Speaker 2: the barriers to entry to the industry are probably too low.
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  Speaker 2: There needs to be a more rigorous assessment before a
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  Speaker 2: person's in a situation where they have the responsibility of
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  Speaker 2: running a company. Secondly, once people are operating, we need
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  Speaker 2: to make sure that NZTA and police have the necessary
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  Speaker 2: compliance tools that they need to get unsafe drivers and
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  Speaker 2: vehicles off the road. And this can include looking at
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  Speaker 2: the ability for ms TA and police to impound heavy
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  Speaker 2: vehicles in more situations and more easily, but also everything
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  Speaker 2: from cracking down on impeered driving, drug driving, just things
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  Speaker 2: that will provide the public confidence that the road forreight
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  Speaker 2: industries operating safely. We know the vast majority of operators do.
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  Speaker 1: When you finally oh sorry, yeah, when you say it's
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  Speaker 1: too easy to be able to get a license and
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  Speaker 1: to operate, how easy is it?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, the Transport service license can be applied for through MDTA.
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  Speaker 2: It's not a particularly rigorous assessment. What we'd like to
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  Speaker 2: do is that before you before you're issued that license,
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  Speaker 2: there should be a demonstration that you have the necessary skills,
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  Speaker 2: you have experience within operating within the industry and the
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  Speaker 2: particular sector of road freight that you're operating in.
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  Speaker 1: So, Billy, do you just do some kind of online
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  Speaker 1: fill in some online form get your license? Do you
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  Speaker 1: have to sit with an instructor and do a test?
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  Speaker 2: No, No, it's a theory. Yeah, it's a it's a
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  Speaker 2: it's a theory test that gets passed rather than a
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  Speaker 2: practical examination of of your skills or business assessment.
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  Speaker 1: Is that for a big big trucks too.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. So what we think that that's correct.
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  Speaker 2: So I think what needs to happen is that there
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  Speaker 2: needs to be an assessment that actually looks at what's
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  Speaker 2: the scale of the business that you intend to operate,
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  Speaker 2: how many vehicles exactly the size and scale of the
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  Speaker 2: vehicles that you're looking at operating. And also tsl's at
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  Speaker 2: the moment don't have a fixed state of expiry, so
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  Speaker 2: m z TA has the ability to withdraw a TSL
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  Speaker 2: license if it hasn't been used or activated within the
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  Speaker 2: last two years, but that doesn't happen sort of automatically
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  Speaker 2: as of right. So we know that Ministry of Transports
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  Speaker 2: had a thorough review of the TSL program. Is sort
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: of work it wants to do on its books. Since
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  Speaker 2: I understand from more twenty twenty one so years ago,
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  Speaker 2: we think it would be a great action for MOT
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  Speaker 2: and MZTA to take to get this thorough review underway
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  Speaker 2: and am sure that we've got the right people operating
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  Speaker 2: road freight businesses.
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  Speaker 1: Sounds like it needs to happen, but it sounds a
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  Speaker 1: little bit like a weekbooks.
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  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 4:22
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• 4:25
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