All “Road transport” topics

The New Zealand Infrastructure Commission is preparing a National Infrastructure Plan that lays out an approach for investment that can meet New Zealand’s long-term needs. In June we released a draft Plan for feedback. It focuses on four areas for improvement: securing affordable funding, streamlining delivery, prioritising maintenance, and sizing new investment realistically. Here, we take a closer look at land transport and invite those in the sector to test our findings against their own experience.

On 6 August 2025, Minister of Transport Hon Christopher Bishop announced the next steps for transitioning all light vehicles from fuel excise duty (FED) to road user charges (RUC). This reform aims to create a fairer funding system for the land transport network, ensuring that all drivers contribute based on their road usage.

A major step toward lifting safety, well-being, and compliance standards across New Zealand’s road freight industry has been launched with the rollout of TruckSafe New Zealand, an independently audited, industry-led Safety Management Accreditation System.

New Zealand’s transport infrastructure is under increasing strain, from aging assets and climate resilience challenges to surging freight demands and limited public funding. With more than $600 million invested annually in road maintenance alone, the question facing infrastructure leaders is clear: Are we investing wisely enough to build the resilient, efficient networks our economy demands?

The Ministry of Transport has launched a new report, the Transport Network Performance Report, providing a comprehensive picture of how Aotearoa New Zealand’s air, road, rail, port and public transport networks are performing at a national level.

Drowsy driving has long been a silent threat on the roads, responsible for countless accidents and near-misses worldwide.

An Auckland roading specialist says even if freight operators have to pay congestion charges, they’ll probably still make on the deal. Michael Roth, the Auckland City Lead Transport Advisor, is one of the team looking at introducing congestion charges to Auckland.

The CLIT’s transport research and educational trust (TRET) is calling for applications for a research grant of up to $15,000 (or two smaller grants). 

In an AutoSense podcast hosted by Greg Murphy, former All-Black and mental health advocate Sir John Kirwan (JK) says transforming ordinary tasks like these into daily rituals can help safeguard mental well-being—and in an industry rife with anxiety and depression, that’s got to be good news. 

In Australia, the Heavy Vehicle National Law provides for heavy penalties for actors in the road freight industry for safety offences. The key point of difference from usual road laws is that they are aimed at all participants in the decisions that led to a safety incident, including those outside the transport sector. Thus all actors from sender to receiver are covered, in what is known as the “chain of responsibility”.

Imagine trying to build a house without a plan. It’d be a disaster. Building a transport network is no different, except that it needs to be detailed, thorough, and robust. A plan has been developed and it is called “Arataki”.

Gisborne transport operator Steve Weatherell has navigated his fair share of adverse weather events, slips and blocked roads. So, the disastrous impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle weren’t going to stop him […]

In sectors like electricity generation, or polluting manufacturing, system-level changes can be implemented by influencing the behaviour of a manageable number of players. In transport, however, decarbonisation does not occur until millions of vehicle-owning households choose to adopt cleaner transport technologies or modes. Influencing their choices is much more challenging.

Freight has been a prominent agenda item for South Island regional councillors in recent months. Supply chain disruptions and the recent government direction to reduce transport-sector greenhouse gas emissions have heightened interest in the topic.

A combination of problems facing the trucking industry opened the opportunity for a new kind of solution: autonomous technology for heavy-duty trucks.