Summary Annual Report 2009
Our achievements
The following section summarises our key achievements across our business for the year ended 30 June 2009.
- Improved access
- More efficient and reliable networks
- Improved environmental and social wellbeing
- Integrated transport and land use
- Improved transport safety
Improved access
Why is this important?
A good transport system enables people to participate in society and travel to jobs and other opportunities conveniently and affordably, and enables local and regional freight to move efficiently from manufacturer to market.
Some achievements for 2008/09
A large part of our role in managing access to the land transport system revolves around providing driver testing services, issuing driver and transport service licences, undertaking vehicle certification, registration and licensing activities, and collecting road user charges. In 2008/09, we issued over 571,000 driver licences and enabled over 328,000 driver tests.
We inspected taxis for compliance over a range of activities, including whether their cars are roadworthy, logbooks are accurate and the person behind the wheel is the person who should be operating the taxi. This year, we engaged with members of the taxi industry on 6271 occasions through our combined agency operations, enforcement operations, taxi checks and industry meetings to ensure compliance.
Our contact centre, based in Palmerston North, is an extremely busy place, handling over 1.6 million phone calls and emails throughout the 2008/09 year. Despite the busy environment, our customer service representatives have maintained customer satisfaction levels of 98 percent on average throughout the year. This achievement was recognised when we won the Gold Award at the national CRM Contact Centre Awards this year.
We invested in a broad programme of community-focused activities that encouraged walking and cycling, including implementation of specific initiatives such as work and school travel plans, and broad-based programmes such as Feet First and Bike Wise. These programmes support low-energy and low-impact travel choices and improve access to transport networks for those who walk, cycle or use public transport.
More efficient and reliable networks
Why is this important?
A good transport system achieves more efficient movement of vehicles and freight, particularly on freight and tourism routes, by improving journey time reliability and more effective use of existing infrastructure assets and services through operating state highways and working together with local authorities.
Some achievements for 2008/09
2008/09 saw another record year of investment in state highways, with $1.5 billion spent on operating, maintaining and improving the state highway network. Investing in state highways can contribute to a number of objectives, such as improving access to employment and markets, freight hubs and ports. It can also reduce travel times, improve safety and provide an economic stimulus. Some of the projects that have made substantive progress or have been completed in 2008/09 include the following:
- A substantive start was made on the construction of Taupo District Council’s $100 million East Taupo arterial, which will provide a bypass around the Taupo township.
- Stage 2 of the Northern Busway, New Zealand’s fi rst purpose-built road dedicated to bus passenger transport, was completed before schedule and on budget. The Northern Busway provides a world-class public transport solution for Auckland’s North Shore, allowing passengers to enjoy higher levels of service.
- The Northern Gateway Toll Road opened on 24 January 2009. It provides a more direct and safer route between Auckland and Northland, and delivers a range of benefits for the Rodney district and for the wider region. Since its opening, we have processed over 1.9 million toll transactions, answered over 203,000 customer enquiries, and established over 33,000 prepaid accounts.
We worked with local government to address public transport capacity in key urban areas and approved investment in the following public transport projects:
- Environment Canterbury's integrated ticketing upgrade, which will modernise and extend the existing system to accommodate new features and allow for the expansion of bus services within the region
- Greater Wellington Regional Council’s real-time public transport information system, which will provide real-time information through existing information channels and new displays at major bus stops and railways stations
- the Auckland Regional Transport Authority’s route planning and service scheduling systems, which will establish digital mapping of public transport services and a central services database that will enable improved service planning and delivery.
Improved environmental and social wellbeing
Why is this important?
A good transport system contributes to better travel choices, reduced transport carbon emissions, lower ecological impacts and improved community health and wellbeing.
Some achievements for 2008/09
We mitigated the adverse effects of the state highways and the vehicles that use them through employing good urban design practices, using landscaping to improve the aesthetics and noise barriers to control the level of noise pollution, decreasing our carbon footprint and ensuring compliance with resource consent conditions.
We implemented the next stage of the Emissions Rule that requires all vehicles entering the fleet to meet a higher standard for certain exhaust gas emissions.
Integrated transport and land use
Why is this important?
A good transport system is supported by an integrated approach to transport and land use planning, which in turn contributes to more business productivity, increased interregional and urban transport efficiency, and better transport contributions to efficient and desired land use patterns and quality of life objectives. More responsive transport planning will support low-energy and low-impact travel choices, and adapt to the way people live, work and play – now and in the future.
Some achievements for 2008/09
We began the process of streamlining our funding approval process by ensuring funding evaluations are undertaken once at the time transport proposals are developed.
Integrated planning in action includes the Gisborne Integrated Planning Pilot trial, an accessibility framework and geographic information systems mapping. We supported local authorities and other approved organisations by providing guidance on transport solutions for communities with limited or no public transport, providing guidelines for strategic studies, travel plans, and a framework for transport management plans for the Rugby World Cup in 2011.
Over the year, we have been working with local government to identify the best choice of transport systems for their communities, regionally and nationally. With our transport partners, we have completed or progressed over 70 studies, ranging from small tightly focused studies addressing safety issues on a route or area, through to studies that look at some long-term transport issues.
Improved transport safety
Why is this important?
A good transport system has a strong focus on safety, which varies from planning, funding and building safe roads and roadsides, to influencing New Zealanders to drive, walk, cycle and travel more safely whether at work, at home or in-between.
Some achievements for 2008/09
While transport safety has been embedded throughout our entire range of activities, we continued targeting safety on state highways by investing in a number of initiatives, including: a $7 million retrofit to make roadsides more forgiving; $8 million to improve signage, markings and surfaces; and $5 million to install audio road markings along the highest collective risk corridors. Another $19 million was invested in roadside barrier installations and improvements, rumble strips, seal widening and blackspot area improvements.
We developed the 2009–12 Road Policing Programme, which targets enforcement on the state highways and local roads in relation to speed, alcohol and drug affected driving, restraint use and dangerous driving.
We worked with New Zealand Police to renew the focus on safety on our roads, which will help decrease the road toll and improve the experience for all road users. Initiatives were based around the refinement of interagency road safety action planning, which synchronises the delivery of engineering, education and enforcement activities to deliver joint safety results for the land transport sector.
We launched a number of advertising campaigns aimed at influencing the attitudes and behaviour of road users to save lives and prevent injuries. Two key campaigns included:
- an advertising campaign targeting experienced male drivers who habitually speed – reinforcing the risk of cornering at speed, and encouraging the target audience to reconsider their behaviour and consider the trauma that speed-related accidents have
- a new drink-driving advertising campaign targeting young males and focusing on the instant and chilling consequences of drink-driving.
We continued our focus on improving the skills and awareness of drivers through our education programmes, including:
- re-launching the Practice young driver programme (a practical driving aid that assists learner drivers to pass the restricted test)
- developing a framework for the continuous improvement of the Safe2go programme (aimed at increasing correct restraint use)
- developing guidelines for Neighbourhood Accessibility Plans for distribution to local authorities (to improve road safety planning at a community level).
