Thursday, 28 July 2016 12:25

Smart tanker partnership wins award

Written by 

Fonterra is thrilled that its partnership with the Southland District Council to improve management of the roading network has been nationally recognised.

At this week's 2016 LGNZ (Local Government New Zealand) Excellence Awards in Dunedin, Southland District Council won the Chorus Excellence Award for Best Practice in Infrastructure Management, for their programme "Changing Direction, The Way Forward for Southland's Roads".

The partnership uses smartphone technology onboard Fonterra's milk tankers to send road quality information to Southland District Council to gain deeper insights into the state of the district's roads and the pressures placed on them.

Fonterra staff at Edendale worked closely with Southland District Council to develop the programme which enables the Fonterra tanker fleet to effectively become the "eyes and ears" for the council.

"This is wonderful recognition for the council and the Fonterra team at Edendale," says Mark Robinson, Fonterra regional head for Otago/Southland.

"It shows what's possible when we take a partnership approach to issues facing our local communities."

Southland District has the largest rural roading network in New Zealand (about 5000 kms), nearly two thirds of which are gravel. Fonterra drivers know the network well – the company operates 60 tankers from its Edendale site, transporting milk from 1050 farms. Data from these daily journeys allows the council to make smarter spending decisions, and improve service to ensure safer journeys for Southland's road users.

Recent NZIER analysis shows that the dairy sector in Southland contributed $1.024 billion to the Southland economy in 2015/16.

"We know we're a big part of economic life in Southland, so we're proud to be able to apply our existing technology to innovation that benefits the whole community," says Mark Robinson.

More like this

Aussie farmers get A$8.60/kgMS as opening milk price

Australian dairy farmers supplying Fonterra are getting an opening weighted average milk price of A$8.60/kgMS for the new season or around NZ$9.26/kgMS -  NZ74c less than New Zealand suppliers, based on the current exchange rate.

Featured

LIC Space folds for good

Farmer co-operative LIC has closed its satellite-backed pasture measurement platform – Space.

Editorial: Time for common sense

OPINION: The case of four Canterbury high country stations facing costly and complex consent hearing processes highlights the dilemma facing the farming sector as the country transitions into a replacement for the Resource Management Act (RMA).

National

DairyNZ Farmers Forum underway

Over 300 farmers and rural professionals have gathered in Hamilton for the first DairyNZ Farmers Forum for this year.

Machinery & Products

Shearing legend hooked on CanAm

Sir David Fagan, world-renowned competitive sheep shearer with 642 shearing titles worldwide and a knighthood to his name, now runs…

50 years of tractor pull

This year, the Fieldays Tractor Pull, in association with PTS Logistics, mark a major milestone – 50 years of crowd-thrilling…

The Wrangler's birthday bash

It's the Wrangler Limited’s 30th birthday and to celebrate the milestone a prototype of the E Series Wrangler - a…

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Free speech

OPINION: The Free Speech Union is taking this one too far.

Drug survey

OPINION: New national data from The Drug Detection Agency (TDDA), a leading workplace drug tester, shows methamphetamine (meth) use is…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter