Road safety concerns could be left unaddressed as frustrated motorists endure long phone wait times when trying to report roading problems, National Party transport spokesman Simeon Brown says.

Brown fears the delays in reaching Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency were discouraging people from notifying it of potholes and other safety issues and wants it to improve frontline service delivery.

But Waka Kotahi claims the average speed for its main phone number used to report road safety problems is just over 30 seconds.

The average speed of answer for all of Waka Kotahi’s 0800 numbers - driver licensing, motor vehicle registration, road users charges and state highway information - this year has been more than 20 minutes through the first five months of this year after steadily building since February 2022.

Brown said the 0800 number wait times were “quite significant” in total and National would make sure Waka Kotahi focused on frontline service delivery “in a timely fashion”.

He said a number of people got in touch to complain that “it takes forever” to get through for things like reporting potholes, or queries about licences or registrations.

“They’ve got over 1000 more staff since Labour came into office, but we’re not seeing those results on the front line and those services that really matter to New Zealanders.

“The big issue is the safety issues on the road where people need to get in touch with NZTA to report incidents or road quality issues; where it’s critically important they’re able to do that in a timely manner and that those issues are able to be resolved.

“My fear is that people effectively hang up and don’t report in because it takes too long - they’re on the road and they’ve got places to go.

“We don’t believe there’s an appropriate-focus frontline service that actually matters to New Zealanders.”

0800 4 HIGHWAYS, the state highway information number, was the number that motorists should use to report potholes or other potential safety issues and concerns on the state highway network.

Waka Kotahi prioritised state highway information ahead of others and its average wait time was 32 seconds.

A spokesperson for Waka Kotahi said in a statement “a range of factors” contributed to wait times, including high customer demand for driver licensing, testing and registration services.

“We acknowledge that current wait times for customers contacting us by telephone are longer than many people would expect and that lengthy wait times are frustrating for people.

“We’re committed to improving our response time and lifting our overall level of service for customers.”

In May, it added 14 fulltime employees (FTEs) to its frontline contact centre staff, taking the total number of FTEs to 124.

The spokesperson said it was continuing to recruit additional contact centre staff and forecast to bring on another 50 FTEs by the end of August.

“Waka Kotahi recognises that it is crucial that state highway information can [be] accessed and issues reported quickly, and calls to the 0800 4 HIGHWAYS number are prioritised ahead of others.”

Brown submitted a written question to the then-Minister of Transport Michael Wood for the average call centre wait time at Waka Kotahi for every month over the past five years.

Wood’s response showed in May (up to May 16), the average speed of answer was 23 minutes and 37 seconds - the slowest response time over the past five years - compared to 13 minutes and 46 seconds for the same month last year and just five minutes in 2021.

The quickest answers were in January 2018 at just 30 seconds and in April 2020 - just after New Zealand entered its first Covid-19 lockdown - at 44 seconds.

It comes after the regions with the most potholes on state highways over the past five years were revealed earlier this month.

More than 211,000 potholes were reported - with a quarter of them being reported in 2022.

Waka Kotahi repaired 54,196 potholes in 2022, and a spokesperson from then-Acting Transport Minister Kieran McAnulty’s office took aim at the previous government for freezing road maintenance.

“When we came into Government, Waka Kotahi advised that more investment in the maintenance of the state highway network was crucial as, despite an almost 10 per cent increase in the size of the network and a 12 per cent increase in costs, funding was flatlined from 2009 to 2017.”