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Speaker 1: The row over road cones is getting so piping hot

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Speaker 1: that somebody might soon blow a gasket. In the Herald

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Speaker 1: this morning, the boss of traffic management firm Traffics has

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Speaker 1: laid into the Transport Minister, saying he and Wayne Brown

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Speaker 1: don't understand how the traffic industry works. He says they

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Speaker 1: don't charge per road cone for work, but rather per

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Speaker 1: worker and truck. He says the public is abusing his

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Speaker 1: staff on site because of misinformation that's being spread. The

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Speaker 1: problem here is that we had this independent report and

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Speaker 1: we spoke about this yesterday from Ey and it was

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Speaker 1: pretty damning. It basically said that the rules, the current rules,

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Speaker 1: incentivized contractors like Traffics to cause maximum disruption in order

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Speaker 1: to maximize profits. And n ZTA looked at eight hundred

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Speaker 1: maintenance work sites this is on the highway network. One

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Speaker 1: hundred and forty five of them were not needed. Doesn't

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Speaker 1: that make you blood boil Auckland Council alone apparently spending

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Speaker 1: one hundred and forty five million a year on road

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Speaker 1: cones and temporary traffic management. There was a contractor this

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Speaker 1: is around the corner from my place, quiet residential suburban street.

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Speaker 1: There was a contract to digging a hole on the

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Speaker 1: side of the road. Not a big hole, just a

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Speaker 1: small hole. I could not believe that they closed the

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Speaker 1: road down. There was down to one lane with stop

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Speaker 1: ghost signs. This is the quietest street in the neighborhood.

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Speaker 1: I just thought it was madness. I would never say

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Speaker 1: anything to the workers, obviously because it's not their fault,

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Speaker 1: but clearly, after the EY report and the message from NZTA,

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Speaker 1: something needs to be fixed and fast. Wayne Brown wants

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Speaker 1: the power to set fees and charge penalties if work

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Speaker 1: drags on or wasn't needed in the first place, and

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Speaker 1: I say give it to him. For more from News

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