Road transport industry
The road transport industry sector covers general freight delivery (both local and long haul) and specialist operations. The industry uses light motor vehicles through to heavy trucks.
The specialist operations include:
- the transport of bulk liquid and gases, logs, livestock, perishable products, waste and recoverable resources (solid and liquid), over-weight and over-dimension loads
- ground-spreading
- military road transport operations
- vehicle recovery and towing.
The road transport sector includes courier pickup and delivery services.
Truck drivers keep our economy moving. New Zealand needs trained, experienced drivers to keep the commercial road freight industry going. Without skilled professionals behind the wheels, the sale and transfer of goods would grind to a halt.
With advances in technology, computerisation, etc, truck driving is a highly skilled job. Truckies today are able to specialise in a number of career pathways. The industry needs people with good computer and communication skills to deal with increasingly sophisticated customer demands.
Interesting facts about the industry:
- over 80% of all freight in New Zealand is transported by road
- there are about 5000 individual road transport firms, most of which are locally based, family-owned businesses with fewer than five trucks
- demand for road transport is growing rapidly with a trend towards the fast delivery of products, 24 hours a day, seven days a week
- the global shortage of skilled workers in most areas of the road transport industry will become an increasing problem as more people working in the industry reach retirement age.
For more information - industry profiles
Read our profiles of the road transport industry. They are based on 2006 Census data. These profiles provide an insight into the unique characteristics of the industries we support.
Road transport - industry profile [PDF: 3Mb, 37 pages]
Road freight transport - industry profile [PDF: 766Kb, 22 pages]
Courier pickup and delivery services - industry profile [PDF: 497Kb, 21 pages]
Other transport not elsewhere classified - industry profile [PDF: 505Kb, 21 pages]