Justin Tighe-Umbers: National Road Carriers Association chief executive discusses calls for NZTA to impound vehicles

A push for NZTA to be given the same powers as Police - to impound unsafe trucks.

The trucking industry wants tougher rules, after an Auckland operator was jailed for manslaughter last year.

Ashik Ali kept his truck on the road despite it being banned, and its failed brakes caused it to roll away and fatally hit a road worker last year.

National Road Carriers Association chief executive Justin Tighe-Umbers told Mike Hosking that most operators maintain their vehicles.

He says there's a handful that blatantly ignore the rules, and they're the ones the system doesn't currently identify.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And we need to tighten our trucking laws. Apparently the
industry want the NZTA to have the power to impound.
Now this follow is the case. We're a previously band truck,
the brakes failed and killed the road worker. Justin T.
Gumbers is the chief executive of the National Road Carriers Association,
is with us, Justin morning to you. I like that
very well. And how does the MZTA fit into it?
And how would you put I mean, what's wrong with

(00:22):
the police for goodness sake and the laws we got currently?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah, what NZTA do is they're the regular auditor of
transport operators, so trucks that are like cars, they get
caught by the system in terms of needing a whiff
or a certificate of fitness as they're called. MNGTA also
conduct audits on transport operators to make sure that fleets
and vehicles are up to the standard they need to carry,
you know, large loads fifty tons and beyond. The police

(00:46):
are out there, they're certainly doing their checks. The problem
is it's just a case of likelihood to get caught
because you've got one hundred and sixty eight thousand heavy
vehicles out there, so really important that MNGTA have the
ability when they need to to get unsafe trucks off
the road.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Is this a singular case or is there more out there.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Well, there's a really tragic case last year where a
road worker was tragedy held and rendew ere by a
truck that should never have been on the road. The
park breaks failed because it hadn't been maintained at all,
hadn't been maintained for a number of years, and it
had been it had been picked up by the system
numerous times as well. So look, it is an outside task.
The vast majority of transport operators do maintain their vehicles,

(01:30):
but there is a handful of very small minority. They
just flagrantly ignore the law. They don't care. It will
never happen to me. I'll get away with it. And
they're the ones that the system's not currently set up
to grab. And while the police have a compounded truck,
MNGTA don't. And I think when m GTA as a
last resort see that there's a there's a flagrant operator

(01:53):
who's just refusing to follow the wolf rules, that can
put the vehicle away.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
And would these be sole or small operation or of
the fleets out there that would be problematic.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, look, it's often sold or smaller operators. It can
be a mixture of both. But the reality is even
the large fleets might they're made up of lots of
individual smaller operators, and the smaller operators can get under
into situations where they find their own able can afford
to maintain their vehicles. Some of them that can reach desperation. Again,

(02:25):
this is just a small minority that you think about
the recession we're in at the moment, you know, the
volumes have gone down by half. Some of these operators
are really struggling to survive on thin margins, so they
can get desperate and can take measures where they go,
I'll just skip on this maintenance. And that's what the
system needs to pick up. Also, really need customers of
transport operators to be more cognitivet of that, and that

(02:48):
there's too many customers out here who are quite happy
to take a cheap grade on the truck and let
the competition do the rest, but in fact what they're
actually doing is paying by what it takes to get
a truck safe.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
It's a very good point. Wish you well with that.
Justin T. Gumbas who's the chief executive the National Road
Carriers Association.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
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