Image: Association CEO Jonathan Bhana-Thomson and Rotorua Mayor, Tania Tapsell.
The NZ Heavy Haulage Association annual conference held in August at the Novotel Rotorua was deemed a great success with some delegates saying it was the best ever, writes association chief Jonathan Bhana-Thomson.
With a wide range of speakers from regulatory bodies, detailed updates for the various sector groups, social activities, a visit to Roadmaster trailers, and the finale of the Mack Truck Dinner and Awards: there was much to take away from this year’s annual conference.
The conference was held at a different Rotorua venue this year, the Novotel, which proved an excellent choice, close to the city centre, and even closer to Eat Street, where there were multiple choices for delegates to share dinner with others.
The welcome from Rotorua Mayor, Tania Tapsell set the scene for the conference, which included a reminder of the wide range of heavy industry and service sectors that are based in the Rotorua area.
A highlight of the conference was the release of a Safety and Awareness video that focuses on the information that other road users need to be aware of about oversize loads on the road. This included the role of load pilots; what purple and amber lights mean; and what other road users should do and be aware of. There is also an extended version for other heavy vehicle drivers on the road, and all versions are available freely from the association.
For the first time at an association conference, a new Mack Truck was handed over on Friday afternoon by Zane Ryan of Mack Trucks to Shane Paul of NZ Building Removals.
Speakers’ insights
The conference featured a range of new presenters from NZTA and CVST – NZ Police, who had not presented before and brought fresh perspectives and information for attendees.
In addition, there were updates about overweight permitting and new developments for permitting compliance which imparted some options at the operational level of our industry sectors.
On the Thursday morning, we were pleased to welcome from the CVST, Inspector Scott Richardson, at the time the acting head of CVST. Now based in Nelson, he’d previously been with the road policing section in South Canterbury.
He talked about how he’d had experience with the piloting of overdimension loads by police; there are not too many of these people left in CVST now, and as a result has a lot of respect for the oversize industry and the job that industry members carry out.
Scott talked about the current and future role of CVST, the part that weigh-in-motion and the CVSC’s will have in the generation of data and information for targeting of operators, and also the roll-out of the roadside drug testing that will be deployed potentially later this year.
Later on the Thursday, it was the association’s pleasure to have Geoff Taylor from NZTA speak. Geoff is the Portfolio Manager for a number of different sectors including oversize and heavy recovery. A wide range of topics were covered, including the current demand for permitting and ability for the NZTA to be able to process these efficiently. In addition, there was discussion about the upcoming changes to various Rules including VDAM. Geoff also manages alternative fatigue management schemes for the Agency, and he outlined the various requirements that are needed to get any proposed schemes across the line.
On the Friday morning, Andrew Clark, the NZTA National Manager for Maintenance and Operations presented about the new way that State Highway maintenance will be delivered under the new IDM models that will be in place next year. He also talked about the NZ Guide for Temporary Traffic Management; how it will be utilised and what this will mean for other road users – a more site-specific individualised approach. This kicked in from 1 September.
A key point that Andrew made was that over the next three years $4 billion funding is provided for maintenance and operations and this will enable the NZTA to undertake road rehabilitation across the country. He said that the 2024/25 season saw the Agency deliver 329-lane-kilometres of road rehabilitations across the country – almost triple the 121-lane-km delivered in 2023/24, while also maintaining the rate of reseals.
However, this also means that there is less money for areas such as vegetation cutbacks, and this was raised by members as a key concern for the transport of overdimension loads.
Andrew also said that there is a new NZTA-led communications method being used now with a more comprehensive way to hear from the Agency about what road restrictions for maintenance will be underway in each region.
The final NZTA speaker was Frankie Evans, the Journey Manager tasked with managing the project for road users with the Tirau to Waiouru Accelerated Maintenance Project. As Frankie pointed out the closures this year are mainly at night and are getting underway. With the night closures, access is possible through the work areas for over-dimension loads, if a prior request is made to her in advance.
During the course of the conference, there were specific sessions for those involved in the overweight sector, housemoving group, load piloting, over-dimension sector, and one of the biggest ever turnouts for the meeting of the heavy recovery group.
A range of trucks were on display outside of the venue, provided by Relocation Contractors, NZ Building Removals, Hanes Engineering, and Modern Transport Engineers.
The site visit trip was to Roadmaster Trailers, based locally in Rotorua, with the support of Colin Patchell and the team. This included hosting the delegates through their facility and having on display a wide range of different trailers that they manufacture on site.
Social functions to enable delegates to catch up with other members of the association were held on the Wednesday evening (supported by TeletracNavman), Thursday evening (thanks to TRT), and there were pre-dinner drinks sponsored by Modern Transport Engineers on the Friday evening.
The social highlight was the Friday Mack Truck Dinner and Awards, and the evening started with a number of awards to recognise worthy recipients, some magical comedy from Brendan Dooley, and a brief history of 125 years of Mack Trucks including its NZ operation, and a profile of current Mack Truck models available to the heavy truck industry.
AWARD RECIPIENTS
Outstanding Service Award: Greig Running
It was an honour to recognise Greig Running for his many years of service to the association. Greig was on the association’s board for a total of 15 years, with four of these as the Chairman of the Association, and another six as the Convenor of the housemover group.
During this time, Greig has been the voice of common sense and reason with a practical aspect to chairing as well as being an integral part of the Housemover sector group, as they continued their successful work to get consistent planning controls across the country on relocated buildings.
Lifetime Achievement Award: Robin Ratcliffe
It was an honour to recognise the achievements of Robin Ratcliffe of Associate member, Modern Transport Engineers.
Over his lifetime, since he started his company at the age of 24, he has been a significant player in the development of heavy haulage and house moving in this country. This included the construction of rows of eight trailers, the first wing-suspension house trailer, and in 1987 the first para-widening (Linkwing) trailer for George Scott of Waikato Heavy Haulage. In 2011, MTE built the biggest NZ-built trailer to move the 670-ton Yolla crew quarters for MultiTrans in New Plymouth; the trailer had 304 tyres.
Thanks to more than 50 years of effort, and the support of the heavy haulage and house moving industry under Robin’s leadership, the MTE Group has now expanded to employ over 450 staff across New Zealand and Australia. It was appropriate to recognise this with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Chairman’s Awards
The final two awards presented were made by Mark McNeilly with his Chairman’s awards for two dedicated members who have been assisting with the running of the association’s conference for a long period. The awards were presented to Debbie James of Central Equipment Movers and Kim Unahi-McLellan of McLellan Freight for their contribution to the association.
Both of these ladies have assisted unasked with the behind-the-scenes organisation of the conference for many years and also with planning of partners programmes, and this voluntary assistance has been greatly appreciated.
Board for 2025-26 Elected at Annual General Meeting
The Governance Board was elected at the AGM held on the Friday afternoon and it featured three new people elected to the Board.
Chairman: Mark McNeilly – McNeilly Heavy Haulage
Heavy Haulage Convenor: Bridget Tapper – Smith Crane & Construction
Heavy Haulage Representative: Nick Monk – HEB Construction
Housemoving Convenor: Dave Haskins – Craig Walker Building Removals 2025
Housemover Representative: Andy Silcock – Progressive Housemovers
Load Pilot Convenor: Karlos Goodwin – Goodwin Piloting Services
Full Member Representative: Paul Britton
We acknowledge the contribution of three people who have served on the association’s board previously: Greig Running (15 years), Paul Running (5 years), and David Scobie (3 years).
In addition, an election for the convenor role was held at the Heavy Recovery sector meeting, and Dion Ward-Allen of Williams Salvage was elected. Thanks to Stuart Gerring for undertaking this role for the last two years.
Parting words from Jeremy Sole- a final column