The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) is proposing a rule change that would allow larger trucks on New Zealand’s roads – causing enormous damage to our roading system, having significant adverse safety and environmental effects, and potentially undermining KiwiRail to the extent that some rail lines around the country may have to be closed.
According to the NZTA, the rule change would:
- increase the allowable overall length on certain types of vehicle configuration;
- increase weight limits on certain axle sets;
- allow vehicles to operate up to 44 tonnes with shorter first-to-last axle spacings than is currently allowed; and
- allow “high-productivity motor vehicles” to operate at gross masses above 44 tonnes (for divisible loads).
Read more about the proposed rule change here.
Make a Submission – Say No
You have the chance to submit against this proposed rule change until Friday July 24th. We have provided a template submission to make this process as simple as possible – just download the template for your submission here (feel free to add or remove anything you like to personalise your submission) and email it to info@nzta.govt.nz
Please include your name, address, contact phone number and email address at the end of the submission. More information on making a submission can be found here.
Here is a brief summary of the Campaign for Better Transport’s submission:
The CBT considers that the proposal to introduce bigger and heavier trucks onto New Zealand roads is fundamentally flawed. This is for a number of reasons outlined below, and detailed further in later sections of this submission:
- Insufficient information has been provided to explain the economic justification for the proposed changes.
- Larger trucks will lead to significantly more wear and tear on roads. Unless the extra wear and tear on roads is paid for through increased road-user charges then the changes will simply involve an increased subsidy for the heavy trucking industry.
- Increasing the maximum size and weight of trucks will mean that trucking competes more directly with rail for bulk goods transport. It is bizarre for government to subsidise trucking and undermine a railway business that is actually owned by the government.
- Potential safety effects of larger trucks.
- Other environmental effects of larger trucks, such as greater CO2 emissions, more particulate matter pollution and more noise pollution.
The CBT considers that the proposed changes will not result in better transport alternatives for New Zealand, but instead increase our dependency on trucking for moving freight around the country.
Our full submission is here: Submission on Land Transport Rule.
So make sure your voice is heard and get your submission email off by Friday this week!
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