King’s Birthday Honours 2026: Warwick Wilshier’s work on transforming log truck safety on NZ roads

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.