Traffic jams cost $1 billion a year

Sitting in traffic jams is a well-known frustration for thousands of commuters, but imagine watching the dollars ticking away with the clock.

Congestion costs Auckland companies anywhere between $750 million and $1 billion a year in holdups, extra costs and lost business.

A major jam, like the one caused when an ink truck spilled its load on the Harbour Bridge last November, gridlocks the city and causes companies to lose hundreds of dollars an hour.

And that cost is passed on in the form of higher prices.

Not to mention the cost of the stress for those caught in the chaos.

Some courier companies are offering their drivers counselling to cope with frustration.

Urgent Couriers managing director Steve Bonnici says his owner-drivers now handle just over two-thirds of the packages they did 10 years ago, and congestion is costing them about $12,000 a year in lost pickups.

The firm has also expanded the area its bicycle couriers cover from the central business district through to Parnell, Newmarket, Ponsonby and Grey Lynn.

And despite a day in the saddle, one of its cyclists chooses to pedal all the way home to Papakura because it takes little longer than driving.

SUB60 general manager David Tombs says that, although the company screens its drivers, stress can get on top of them.

He estimates that only a couple of the firm's 120 drivers need counselling a year, but "it's there if required."

While the business community waits for solutions - more roads and public transport - companies have been changing their operations to avoid rush hours.

Tapper Transport will not leave a 5km radius around its Onehunga base during the morning and afternoon peaks, while Carr & Haslam has had to switch one job to 4 am just to be able to meet the half-hour delivery window needed by its customer.

"Because of the fragility of the network, if anything happens you are doomed," Carr & Haslam manager Chris Carr says.

"There are no alternatives. I was driving a large truck last week and I had to go down residential streets because the motorway was blocked."

Mr Carr recently compared the delays for one potential delivery job to five points across Auckland with the run starting at midnight or midday. The trek could be made in 51/2 hours at night, but would take almost 81/2 during the day.

He estimates congestion costs his firm, which has 37 vehicles, several hundred thousand dollars a year.

Mr Carr believes Auckland's road building is about 15 years behind where it should be, and says the cost is making businesses leave the country.

Although heartened by what he sees as a more coordinated approach by the region's councils over the past year, he believes one local authority is needed to speed up the fight against congestion.

Tapper Transport does its best to keep off the roads during the peak periods, but it still loses about $250,000 a year through congestion.

It restricts its pickups at the Ports of Auckland to between 6 pm and 6 am, while the onset of the morning and afternoon peaks sees deliveries kept within 5km of its Onehunga base.

Only between 9 am and 3 pm will the company start delivering to other parts of Auckland, but even then one day a month will be written off financially because of congestion, says director Simon Tapper. Having drivers sitting in a jam costs up to $100 an hour, and Mr Tapper says a major incident paralysing the Southern Motorway can strand 20 drivers from the 46-vehicle fleet.

The Auckland Business Forum puts the cost of congestion to businesses in the region at $1 billion a year, up from the 1997 estimate by Ernst & Young of around $750 million.

The forum is pushing for completion of the road network to be given priority over proposed public transport schemes, with a deadline of 2010.

Spokesman Tony Garnier says this would offer alternative routes when the Southern Motorway spine comes to a standstill, particularly the troublesome Spaghetti Junction.

But both Mr Carr and Mr Tapper, as well as other truckies the Herald spoke to, believe that increasing public transport will help to free up roads for commercial traffic.

Mr Tapper has a pessimistic view of Auckland's future, believing that finishing the motorway network and getting a decent public transport system will only keep congestion at its present level.

"Nobody has a big enough wand to make it go backwards."

The chairman of the regional land transport committee, Les Paterson, says local authorities are moving as quickly as they can.

Like many others, however, he shies away from giving a date when all the answers will be in place.

"There's no city of our size and type that has managed to get rid of congestion," he says.

"Everything we have is aimed at reducing and managing it."

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