Wilshier
had been a log truck operator for more than four decades.
The 65-year-old has been made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2026 King’s Birthday Honours for his service to the industry and his role in transforming safety standards.
By 2025, rollover rates had fallen from 2.4 per million kilometres travelled to 0.3.
Wilshier entered the forestry industry at 21 after telling his father he wanted to buy a log truck.
“He didn’t think it was a very good idea at the time.”
Raised in Ōtorohanga, Wilshier grew up around his grandfather’s native sawmill but was drawn to the trucks hauling the timber and the mechanics behind the operation.
He completed a mechanical apprenticeship at the Waipā Mill, which he said was the biggest mill in New Zealand at the time, and learned how to repair trucks before buying an existing unit carting logs into the mill.
By 1989, Wilshier had expanded into multiple fleet ownerships.
A partnership with Gary Williams later led to the Rotorua-based Williams and Wilshier Transport Ltd, delivering logs to Kinleith, Kawerau and McAlpines in Rotorua.
The company went on to provide log transport services throughout the East Coast and wider central North Island, operating a fleet of about 85 trucks. Williams is not involved with the company today.
Wilshier became a founding member of the New Zealand Log Transport Safety Council in 1996 and chaired the group for more than 25 years.
He was appointed chairman of the Road Transport Forum, and chaired I Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand from 2021 to 2024.
The Log Transport Safety Council spearheaded major safety reforms, including increasing trailer lengths to 22m so loads could sit lower and be spread more evenly, improving stability and reducing rollover risk.
It also introduced stricter driver training, formal qualifications, speed monitoring and fatigue management programmes.
Sleep apnoea became a “big focus” after a driver fell asleep at the wheel and crashed through school grounds in Nelson. “No kids there, luckily,” Wilshier said.
Wilshier said the council’s success came from everyone working together.
The rules were you “leave your guns at the door”, he said.
“We all aspire for the same thing … to turn the industry around … and have the best safety rating.”
It was the “exceptional friendships” that kept Wilshier in the industry for so long.
They travelled around New Zealand and overseas together, including trips through the United States, Canada and Sweden.
“Our camaraderie is one of the most inspiring things.”
To succeed in trucking, “you have to lie straight in bed”, Wilshier said.
It was a saying meaning to “look each other in the eye … tell the truth” and “live by your morals”.
He singled out fellow operator Mark McCarthy, who had worked alongside him since day one, and the late Martin Hyde, a driving force behind many of the industry’s safety improvements.
“It’d have been neat to have [Hyde] standing beside me,” Wilshier said.
While the King’s Birthday honour carried his name, Wilshier said improving the industry’s safety record had been a team effort.
The forestry sector was a “very important” part of New Zealand’s economy and “probably undervalued”, he said.
“We’re a shining star in terms of an industry organisation that has stepped up and managed itself and improved the outcomes.”
Wilshier was inducted into the New Zealand Road Transport Hall of Fame in 2022. He was named Business Person of the Year at the 2024 Tompkins Wake Rotorua Business Awards.
Annabel Reid is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and the Rotorua Daily Post, based in Rotorua. Originally from Hawke’s Bay, she has a Bachelor of Communications from the University of Canterbury.