www.viewpoint.net.nz - NZ Transport, Aviation, Logistics & Supply Chain Blog

Log Book & Work Time Changes

Below is a brief video that Agoge Training has made to summarise the changes in Logbook and Work time rules effective 1 October 2007. If you would like a free high quality copy please contact Jim on 0800 42 46 43.

Work time and logbooks

As of 1st of October some of the rules around work time and logbooks are changing considerably.  These changes will affect most transport companies at some level.  Below is a summary of the changes and when they take affect.

Key Changes

Work time and logbooks

• From 1st October 2007, instead of recording ‘on-duty’ time and ‘driving hours’ separately, all time spent working must be recorded as ‘work time’.
• Drivers must take a break of at least 30 minutes after 5.5 hours of ‘work time’, regardless of what kind of work they were doing.
• In any 24 hour period drivers can work a maximum of 13 hours then have to take a break of at least 10 hours.
• Drivers can still work up to 70 hours before they must take a break of at least 24 hours.
• Failure to produce a logbook can result in a fine of up to $2,000/individual, $10,000/company, and 35 demerit points.

Chain of Responsibility

Employers or those that control drivers can face fines of up to $25,000 if they knew, or should have known, that a driver under their control did, or was likely to, breach work time provisions.

Key Dates

• 1st October 2007 - 2 new logbook formats released (general and taxi), and all work time provisions become law.
• 1st April 2008 - All existing logbook exemptions expire.
• 1st July 2008 - Only new format logbooks may be used.

Transport and Logistics is boring.

Last week I attended a presentation by the Road Transport Association about the changes in log books.

IT WAS BORING!

Now an important disclaimer: This is not a criticism of the RTAs intent. They genuinely desire to have a positive impact on the industry and the logbook rule change is really important.

But…

The presentation was boring. The power point presentations were too long. They read straight from the slides, didn’t paint pictures, tell stories or sell the changes well.

And to top it off there were the grumpy old truck drivers there who thought it was a good time to relitigate the law. Not the RTAs fault but they should have shut them down.

Fortunately, with the exception of a couple of people I was with, there were no Gen-Y there. They would have been bored silly. They would have thought that the transport and logistics industry was boring, stayed and unchallenging.

Based on what they saw last week. They would be right!

If we are really to compete for talented, energetic, young people, we need to start being a heap more upbeat and edgy and passionate.

Not slowly, but now!

   

Toll to be 100% Aussie owned.

Well NZ Rail, come Tranz Rail, come Toll NZ will finally disappear off the NZ Stock exchange.

Toll purchased 10% of the shares from a New York based fund and can now undertake a compulsory takeover of the remaining 6% of shares in the company for $3 per share.

Toll originally tried to gain compulsory acquisition when it took over at $1.10 per share and has withheld dividend payments over the last 2 years.

The parent company Toll Holdings in Australia has indicated it may duel list its shares from Aussie on the NZX.

It is another lose to the New Zealand Stock exchange who appear to be having more delistings than listings this year. It is also a loss to New Zealand as yet another huge company will see its dividends sent off-shore.

Toll is the operator of the largest rail, road and ferry business in NZ.

New Logbook and Driving Hours to be in place by October

The new driving hours and log book changes now look set to be signed in June and in place within the industry by October.

The key change operationally is that "On-duty time" and "Driving time" are merged and become "Work Time".

Under the draft provision a driver must now have a total of 10 hours rest in a 24 hour period and may only work a maximum of 13 hours. (this is a change from 11 hours driving and 14 hours on-duty)

They must also have a 1/2 hour break every 5 1/2 hours. (this is a change from 5 1/2 hours driving)

It will be interesting to see what the exact outcome is once it is passed into law.

You can read more at Land Transport here.

Turnover is highest in the Jun Quarter

Statistics NZ released there latest employer-employee data last week. He are some interesting numbers I have discovered:

Staff Turnover
The transport industry had a 14.4% turnover for the year to March. This is down slightly on the same time last year which is 15.5%. For the wholesale trade (which includes many distribution centres) turnover is 13.3%

Looking at the stats it is interesting to see that the June Quarter is actually the highest turnover period for the supply chain industry and historically rises to around 17% for transport and 15% for wholesale. Time to keep a close eye on the your staff.

Number of workers
The other fact I found interesting was that since Mar 2002 (when agoge launched) work numbers in this transport category have increased by 15% from 61,000 to 71,000 people.

Workers in the wholesale industry have increased 14% from 96,000 to 110,000.

All in all a growth industry! While it would be nice to reduce the staff turnover I suspect that this will continue to rise. People are no longer committed to long term employment and will move jobs more frequently than ever.

Linfox and PFL

Finally a small article appears in the NZ Herald.

Provincial Freightlines (PFL) was a successful privately owned logistics business with blue-chip customers, Linfox chief executive Michael Byrne said.

PFL served industries including logging, timber, packaging, chemicals, refined fuels and fast-moving consumer goods.

The acquisition would double the revenue base of the New Zealand arm of the Linfox business, Mr Byrne said.

It will be intresting to see if they are rebranded, merged or left alone in the medium term.

Linfox buys Provincials

Linfox as purchased Provincial Freightlines Ltd effective today. It hasn’t hit the general media as such.

While the sale of privately held companies to Aussie companies is inevitable I must admit I think it is a loss to New Zealand. It is further evidence that the Transport market is maturing in NZ, as the medium size companies either grow or are acquired.

Provincials had some really rocky years back in the 80’s and I remember well their merger with Heatons. In the last 10 years however they have developed a really strong brand.

Their silver trucks with simply the word “Provincial” on the curtains is a crisp, clean and very well recognised brand.  They have developed a strong customer focused niche business.

What will become of “Provincial”? Time will tell. They were the first customer of agóge and I appreciate their loyalty and continued support. I wish them all well in this transition.

Transport companies get a 3% increase in costs

Some significant cost increases to the Trucking Industry in the last few days.

Firstly the long awaited increase in the Holidays Act from 3 weeks to 4 weeks. I was thinking about the implication of this to the industry. We currently have around 25,000 ‘Heavy’ Truck drivers. Each of them is now entitled to an additional 1 weeks leave. For an industry that it already short of drivers, it now needs around another 500 drivers just to cover the additional 125,000 days annual leave to be taken this year.

Don’t worry about finding an additional 500 drivers, it will be easy – Yeah Right

The second issue is the increase in Road User Charges with 48 hours notice. It is estimated that the 11% increase in RUC will increase operators costs by 1%. This is a significant amount of money that can not be recouped from customers instantly.

A 3% increase to transport companies costs from 1 April. Welcome to the new financial year guys. Sorry I don’t have any solutions apart from getting a new government.