Boss rejects ‘cone mania’ blame
Traffix chief blasts report indicating firms benefit from longer disruption
Atraffic management boss says blaming the industry for “road cone mania” is wrong. Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown yesterday released a report that found temporary traffic management (TTM) contractors had little incentive to work cheaper or faster.
The Ernst & Young Global Ltd (EY) report found existing rules and regulations incentivised contractors to cause maximum disruption to maximise profits. It also showed legislative change was needed to change this behaviour and minimise disruption, and that virtually every other comparable jurisdiction charges more, enforces more vigorously, and charges for time and disruption.
Traffix managing director Michael Eremin said the EY report was wrong to say that TTM companies could influence how long it takes to do a job, saying they were subcontracted to the main contractor and work to their timeline.
He also took exception to the report claiming road controlling authorities, such as Auckland Transport (AT), cannot challenge TTM contractors.
“This is incorrect. AT reviews and approves every traffic management plan that any company applies for. They have every opportunity to challenge the plan submitted to them for approval. This includes the date range for the proposed work.”
Eremin said there was a narrative in the media that TTMs charge by the cone when TTMs charge for staff costs and trucks to reach an hourly rate for the job.
“They [cones] are a consumable item to our business and no different than diesel, or insurance, or tyres.
“The number of cones could be hypothetically reduced but it won’t save anyone any money.
“The fact that the mayor, and even the Minister of Transport, continue to publish commentary . . . [that] the number of cones correlates to the cost of TTM implies that they are either misinformed or completely ignorant of even the most basic factors surrounding the subject.
“Our staff are facing levels of abuse by the public on site, which has increased exponentially since the misinformation around the TTM industry started hitting the media,” Eremin said.
The mayor disputed Eremin’s comments, saying the independent report, which considered the whole system, found little real oversight of TTM companies.
“The current costs and disruption imposed by the current system is unacceptable,” he said.
The Herald sought comment from Minister of Transport Simeon Brown.
Earlier yesterday, Wayne Brown said the “nonsensical” use of temporary traffic management was hugely frustrating for people.
“Temporary traffic management has gone beyond necessity, which doesn’t make worksites any safer. The loss in productivity to Auckland businesses and households is taking a massive toll on our city financially, but it also causes undue stress.
“It’s embarrassing, and not what you’d expect from a world-class city.”
He questioned the “disturbing lack of understanding of commercial drivers” displayed by NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) and the Ministry of Transport.
“Only by addressing the commercial drivers can we finally begin to reverse the loss in productivity road cone mania has caused.”
Brown told Newstalk ZB that safety culture was everywhere in New Zealand and these industries were exploiting it.
“I have given direction to Auckland Transport to start reducing it and they have made some efforts and saved some money,” he said.
The EY report showed, under the direction of Brown, AT had reduced its TTM spend by $1.27 million since February. However, Brown said some rules and regulations prevented the acceleration of that process.
“It’s another case of Wellington passing rules and regulations without understanding the economic impact.”
Early this month, the Transport Minister said road cone use and TTM was “out of control”.
“Excessive use of road cones and temporary speed limit reductions — sometimes left in place when work is complete — simply increases cost, forces people to slow down, and frustrates drivers,” Simeon Brown said.
“In fact, the NZ Transport Agency conducted a review of TTM at 800 maintenance worksites on the state highway network across the country in February and found that 145 of these sites were not needed, showing how out of control the use of road cones and temporary traffic management has become.”
Auckland Council spends a reported $145m a year on road cones and temporary traffic management.