Our purpose
Our purpose is to deliver transport solutions for a thriving New Zealand on behalf of the government.
New Zealand thrives when the transport system and sector is:
- effective– moves people and freight where they need to go in a timely manner
- efficient– delivers the right infrastructure and services to the right level at the best cost
- safe and responsible– reduces the harms from transport
- resilient– meets our future needs and endures shocks.
How we achieve our purpose
Investing in performance
- The NZ Transport Agency Board is responsible for allocating funds from the National Land Transport Fund to land transport activities, including local roads, state highways and public transport.
- We also fund, together with local and regional government, local roads and public transport infrastructure and services.
- We provide assistance and advice, including through membership on regional transport committees that develop regional land transport programmes.
Find out more about the National Land Transport Fund
Regulating access and use
- We work closely with our agents to provide transport users with safe access to the land transport system through:
- driver testing services
- issuing driver licences and transport service licences
- vehicle certification, registration and licensing
- collecting road user charges and other revenue.
- We’re contracted by the Ministry of Transport to develop rules, a form of legislation that, together with regulations, shape our business.
Providing national activities
The national activities we undertake include:
- operating and improving the state highway network
- national advertising and education programmes
- administering a fund for land transport research.
Find out more about our advertising
Our priorities
Our priorities over the next three years:
- Make it easy for customers to do business with us.
We want to make it easy for people to do the right thing, such as keeping their vehicles roadworthy or paying a toll, and to reduce time and costs for small to medium businesses. We will use our skills and expertise to understand customers’ needs and find solutions that deliver services people really value at a cost that makes sense. - Predictable journeys for urban customers .
Knowing how long a journey might take is important for people and businesses. We’ll be looking at ways to help make their travel times more predictable, and provide them with the information they need to make smart travel choices and save time and increase productivity each day. This means understanding how and when our customers experience delays, and working with others to actively plan and manage all modes of travel to free-up the places where most delays occur. - Integrate road and rail to improve freight network productivity .
We’ve made great progress in getting more freight on fewer trucks – now we want to look at ways to improve the efficiency of the wider freight network. We’ll focus on the connections between road, rail and inter-modal freight hubs, with better coordination of long-term planning and development. We’ll work with KiwiRail and the freight sector to ensure planning and investment across New Zealand’s freight network is more joined-up. - Safer speeds that are right for the road .
Three quarters of New Zealand’s road deaths and serious injuries occur on open roads or busy urban roads. Small changes in speeds can make a big difference to the number of deaths and serious injuries on our roads. We’ll continue to work with others to shift community attitudes around speed and road safety risks, and work with local authorities to align speeds to road function and design. We will identify our highest risk urban arterials and target them for treatments to improve safety and save lives, while maintaining efficient travel times. - Driving value through smart road maintenance.
Working with our local government partners we can achieve greater value for money from road maintenance and operations. A key step in achieving this has been classifying different types of roads, which helps us and our partners make consistent, cost-effective road maintenance decisions. The next step is to foster continued collaboration and information sharing between road controlling authorities to build capability for efficient activity management and procurement of road-maintenance services. - Make urban cycling a safer and more attractive transport choice .
There’s been a surge of interest in cycling and cycling safety in New Zealand and we want to support and encourage this, particularly in our main urban centres. We’ll work with our local government partners to prioritise the development of strategic cycling networks when planning for urban transport networks. This is a challenge; providing safe, efficient and attractive cycling choices in urban environments and on busy multi-modal urban networks is complex and sometimes controversial. We’ll know we’re successful when more people are cycling and the number of cycling deaths and serious injuries has reduced.
Our goals
Our goals over the next 10–20 years:
- Integrate one effective and resilient
resilentnetwork for customers .
We are integrating planning, investment and operations so that travel around our towns, cities and rural areas is seamless and more efficient – whether by walking, cycling, using public transport, freight vehicles or cars. - Shape smart efficient, safe and responsible transport choices .
We are helping shape the transport choices that people make by providing good information and encouraging them to travel safely and efficiently. We want to work cooperatively with other network operators to unlock the land transport system’s contribution to a thriving New Zealand. - Deliver efficient, safe and responsible, and resilient highway solutions for customers .
We are ensuring that the state highway network plays its part in the wider transport network and contributes to safe and reliable journeys. Over time we want to improve the experiences that people have on our highways, and work to ensure the state highway network is resilient to change. - Maximise effective, efficient and strategic returns for New Zealand .
We are making smart and innovative investments in the national, regional and local land transport system because we need to ensure every dollar we spend helps New Zealand thrive. Together with our partners we allocate funds to advance national and regional transport objectives.