Following the Kaikoura earthquake in 2016, KiwiRail re-engineered its services, strategic direction and pricing. With significant disruption to traditional freight movement, they increased their inter-island rates. Owens and Daily Freight subsequently applied a temporary surcharge to recover this cost while the coastal road and rail route were re-established.

Since the reopening of SH1 and the Main North Line, both companies have held exhaustive negotiations with KiwiRail, the outcome being that costs for inter-island movements will remain at their current levels with reduced capacity. Pricing has also increased for other modes of transport, as the competitive pressure of historically low rail cost has been removed.

As a result of these market changes, from 1 October 2018 Owens and Daily Freight‘s existing disruption surcharge of 14.2% will be removed and replaced with the following: 

• All South Island intra-island movements in and out of the Marlborough region will have the surcharge removed altogether (13.7%). Due to limited rail services, this region is traditionally dominated by road line haul requiring unimpeded access to SH1. They expect SH1 to be fully operational heading into the spring months.
• All inter-island rates will increase by 9.8% (after the removal of the existing 14.2% surcharge).

Customers wanting further information on these changes are advised to contact their local sales representative.