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New Zealand Contracting Associations & OrganisationsThis page gives information about the numerous organisations that are involved in contracting throughout New Zealand. Some of the initial information has been gathered from the N.Z. Contractors' Federation service directory and details information about that organisations and its associated members organisations.As this site becomes more developed and recognised we will have information about the New Zealand Master Builders Association, Master Plumbers, and other associated industries within that construction sector.This section of the site will be expanded at a later date but at present you can find out a little about the various industry groups listed below.
By clicking on the title you can discover what it is these groups do and who (in the future) to contact for further information. From here you can find out a little about these organisations philosophy and those of you who do not belong to any official body may decide to join. For that reason there will be links to those association sites in due course. However if you belong to the official body and wish to be linked, please email the Webmaster.
The New Zealand Contractors’ Federation Inc (founded in 1944) is the national organisation of the civil-engineering construction and general-contracting industry – a service industry that has played an important part in the development of our country. The industry plays a vital role in our modern economy, providing and maintaining the country’s infrastructure of public services – the services needed by a modern, developed economy that must compete efficiently in world markets to maintain and improve its high standard of living. + The federation is also recognised, in terms of the Industry Training Act 1993, as the industry training organisation (ITO) responsible for training for the civil-engineering construction and general-contracting industry. Membership is open to businesses engaged in providing:
CONTRACTORS' FEDERATION MISSION STATEMENTThe federation's mission is: "To protect and enhance the interests of its members" or, put more colloquially, Getting It Right for Contractors Under that driving objective, the federation has three subsidiary objectives:
CONTACT DETAILS:
Since then the BCA has unrelentingly pursued that original broad aim. Its members have been kept exceptionally well informed on technical matters through newsletters and regional and national forums; and it has ensured (with the help of Taranaki Polytechnic's Institute of Highway Technology) that it is the industry leader in training, including education in the safe use of bitumen. = Moreover, the BCA has maintained an excellent rapport with industry clients such as Transit New Zealand (to the extent that the two organisations have jointly organised roading seminars) and it has kept up a constant contact and exchange of information with its opposite numbers In Australia and the United States. By organising workshops and seminars the BCA was able to ensure that all its members met the quality-assurance requirements that became mandatory in mid-1995 for all Transit-funded state highway surfacing contracts. The BCA has also been working with Transit on moving away from prescriptive to performance-based specifications for the application of chip seal, hotmix asphalt and slurry seal. Performance-based specs represent a major shift from the contractor merely doing the job on time and taking the money. They entail the roles and responsibilities of the parties to a contract being clearly defined and the contractor becoming more accountable - and more involved in all phases of the work, including the design process, supervision, self-imposed quality control, and end-product quality assurance. Because of this transfer of risk from the client to the contractor, the BCA is reviewing the activities, aims and objectives that have stood it in such good stead for the first seven years of its existence. It says performance-based /end-result type specifications will create an entirely new environment for the industry, and in order to meet this challenge it needs to determine its future role. The BCA, an incorporated organisation with its own director, operates from the Contractors' Federation national office in Wellington, avails itself of the federation's secretarial and administrative services, and practically all its members also belong to the federation.
The Rural Associated Contractors' Federation (RACF) came into being in 1995 and celebrated its independent existence with a very successful annual conference at Picton. For the previous seven years the organisation had existed as the Rural Associated Contractors' Section of the Contractors' Federation, having been formed in 1988 by an =amalgamation of the federation's agricultural contractors' and chemical applicators' sections. The RACF has taken all these changes in its stride, perhaps because rural folk are resilient and self-reliant by nature. The RACF has not entirely severed its links with the Contractors' Federation: some contractors belong to both organisations; the RACF is still based at the Contractors' Federation national office; and rural sector training and qualifications under the New Zealand Qualifications Authority framework is being set up through the contracting industry training organisation. The RACF is administered by a part-time manager and is governed by a nationally elected president, vice-president and committee of five. Activities undertaken by the RACF's council on behalf of members include:
In 1969 the companies involved in extracting and supplying gravel and allied materials formed the Aggregates Association of New Zealand, now called the Aggregate and Quarry Association of New Zealand. Since then, association membership has widened to include lime suppliers. Membership stands at more than 80 companies, which between them produce in excess of 70 percent of the aggregates and allied raw materials used in New Zealand. The association was formed in response to the need for an industry group to represent aggregate suppliers on a range of issues. The association's principle aims include: +
The association is an incorporated society, with councilors elected from member companies around New Zealand. Its national secretary works from its office in Wellington. The organisation's technical committee is regarded as an impartial expert body, both within the industry and by users of aggregates. The committee is heavily involved with members' concerns, particularly as an adviser to regulatory bodies such as Transit New Zealand and local government. Training and education are also key concerns of the association (which along with the Institute of Quarrying New Zealand branch and other extractive interest groups has formed an industry training organisation). The association promotes good environmental practices to its members as well as health and safety matters. The association is recognised as an influential lobby group on matters affecting resource use and supply issues. On behalf of members it employs an industry advocate to monitor individual and industry concerns and respond accordingly. Aggregate & Quarry Association members extract and process stone and other industrial mineral products which am essential to New Zealand’s community social and commercial activity. The product range includes quarried and graded rock, marine sands and gravel for use in building construction, limestone for reading and fertilisers, and clays used in the manufacture of bricks, chinaware and pottery. In the development of community infrastructure, quarry products are a key component in the building of homes, subdivisions, schools, shopping malls, factories and hospitals. The supply of community water-storage and sewage treatment facilities, the generation and reticulation of power, and the provision of sporting and recreation venues all demand the ongoing availability of high quality, affordable stone and industrial mineral supplies. Industry, both primary and secondary, relies heavily on quarry and aggregate resources. The forestry sector demands high volumes of roading aggregates, and the rural sector uses both quarried stone for farm tracks and limestone for fertiliser. Secondary industry, including manufacturing, requires quarried aggregates for materials to support construction and maintenance of gas and water pipelines, wharf and marine facilities, airports, and road and rail networks. The fastest growing sector in New Zealand’s economy, tourism relies on the ready availability of quarried products to complete tourist developments, hotel and motel accommodation and tourist route construction and maintenance. The quarrying industry serves conservation objectives. Its stone products are used in the prevention of foreshore riverbank erosion. The industry assists with the planned removal of surplus deposits that cause flooding due to riverbed build-up and the production of quality aggregate chips that form the surface of dust free pavement surfaces.
The Power Crane Association of New Zealand was formed at the beginning of 1975 as a result of nation- wide concern by crane owners that they had no recognised organisation to speak out on their behalf on matters of vital importance to their industry. Nor was there any opportunity for crane owners to come together to discuss in-depth topics of common concern. Today the Power Crane Association has established itself as the voice of the industry and is recognised by Government, regulatory bodies and the public as the official authority on all matters pertaining to cranes. + The PCA has placed a great deal of importance on training and safety and has succeeded in raising the standards of efficiency within the industry. It has set up training programmes aimed at increasing safety and efficiency in crane operations. Some of the objectives of the PCA are to:
The PCA publishes the Crane Safety Manual, which has been acclaimed worldwide as the best available book of its type. It also employs a full-time training officer for the purpose of advising and training industry in safety and operating techniques – not only crane operators but also any persons associated with crane or lifting equipment. This training scheme has received high praise from US crane owners and heavy-lift specialists. The PCA is represented on government and industry committees, is accepted by government departments and other organisations as the recognised authority of the crane industry, and has the ability to make submissions direct to ministers and heads of government departments on matters of concern to the industry. It also acts in matters of common concern with the Contractors’ Federation, with which it maintains close links.
Members of the New Zealand Heavy Haulage Association engage in activities which (without due care), could easily inconvenience and even alienate the public. For this reason, taking its industry responsibilities seriously has always had the highest priority with the association in its 32 years' existence. This consistently vigilant approach has paid increasingly handsome dividends: roading and transport authorities have come to respect and to trust the organisation that speaks for the movers of big loads and have granted it increasing powers of self-regulation. The most notable of these is the Heavy Haulage Association's administration of the certified pilot scheme. + Certified pilots, the people who guide heavy loads round the country entered the industry about nine years ago to supplement and eventually replace the service provided by the traffic police. There are now more than 50 A-grade and 30 B-grade pilots. The association has organised the training of the pilots so they can meet the standards demanded by the new regime. They have also worked their way through matters of insurance and liability involved within the scheme and have reached agreement with the Land Transport Safety Authority (LTSA) on standards for vehicle signs, colour and lights. The next step is an LTSA - authored campaign to make the public aware of the certified pilot's role in the movement of heavy loads. The Heavy Haulage Association enjoys a good rapport and communication with the LTSA, Transit New Zealand, and the Commercial Vehicle Investigation Unit, and has had considerable input into such matters as the over-dimension policy review and the over-dimension route document. This unusual partnership between regulators/enforcers and hauliers does not mean a problem-free existence for operators - but it does mean that those who move heavy loads and those who set the rules by which they must live are at last travelling along the same road and in the same direction.
Few organisations in the construction industry have conducted such a rigorous self-examination in recent years as the Ready Mixed Concrete Association - and been prepared to take tough corrective measures to improve its members' lot. Functioning in a sector of the industry that suffered more than most during the recession, and beset by internal problems, the RMCA has courageously fought its way back by devising a blueprint to ensure greater success for readymix in the construction-materials market. The RMCA's intentions are aptly summed up by its mission statement: "To achieve increased market share for ready-mixed concrete produced by RMCA members against all competing products." + The blueprint itself, Concrete 2000, is a self-help programme designed to revitalise the entire readymix sector. It is based on the US's RMC 2000 project, which is achieving a remarkable turnaround of the depressed American industry. RMC 2000 director Gene Martineau has visited New Zealand and RMCA president and full-time Concrete 2000 director Fred Thomas has been to the US to see for himself how an improvement in industry attitudes and efficiency is being engineered with a view to ensuring that concrete becomes the construction material. With a new sense of direction, with the construction industry on an upswing, and with marketing help from the Cement and Concrete Association, the RMCA is poised to start fulfilling its mission statement. But the RMCA is not stopping there. While quality assurance has been a buzzword exclusive to the 1990s, the association has long been concerned with the quality of the industry's product and has had a classification committee whose task is to grade members' plants. The RMCA is not satisfied with the committee gaining ISO 9001 certification, but is now taking steps to strengthen the perceived independence and integrity of the committee's workings and to ensure that customers are aware of and value the plant-grading system. The RMCA's pursuit of increased market share for its members is no idle dream. New Zealand's use of concrete per head of population is very low on the global league table, while the country's use of timber is among the highest internationally. So the gains are there to be made - if RMCA members can see and follow the wisdom of what their organisation is trying to show them. Co-operation and communication will be the keys to success. If readymix producers can banish the enemy within, they will defeat the enemy without.
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