Lyttelton Port Company has won a top national safety award for its use of drone technology to help remove workers from high risk situations.

The company received the Work Related Safety Award for the Best Initiative to Address a Work Safety Risk at the 2026 Safeguard New Zealand Workplace Health and Safety Awards.

The awards were held at Auckland’s Viaduct Event Centre on 23 June, in association with WorkSafe New Zealand and ACC.

Lyttelton Port Company Chief Health and Safety Officer Steven Barclay said the award recognised a workforce led initiative and a strong team effort across the business.

“This is a real success story for our teams. The idea came from our operational people, who saw an opportunity to eliminate work at height risk and worked together to make it happen,” Barclay said.

Drone technology, fitted with high resolution cameras, is now being used across a range of hazardous port operations.

That includes container roof inspections, coal stockpile monitoring, container terminal pavement inspections and cruise berth seawall rock surveys.

Barclay said the technology was changing the way teams worked.

“The use of drone technology is changing how we work, giving us better visibility, helping us manage risk more effectively, and creating new opportunities to improve safety across the business,” he said.

At LPC’s MidlandPort in Rolleston, thousands of container roof inspections have been carried out using drones over the past eight months.

The company said the approach had significantly reduced the need for workers to operate at height, while also improving efficiency.

Barclay said the initiative showed how innovation and practical thinking could transform safety outcomes.

“When we get it right, and our workforce and teams are joined up to eliminate risk, we see real change. This award is recognition of that approach,” he said.

In announcing LPC as the winner, the award citation said traditional ground level analysis did not always reflect how work was actually done, while drones provided perspectives that were otherwise not available.

It said the technology had transformed both safety outcomes and operational assurance, while also creating new use cases.

“We are very grateful for the recognition, and I know our teams will take real pride in what they have achieved,” Barclay said.

Other finalists in the Work Related Safety category included Air New Zealand, Fonterra Darfield and Naylor Love North.

LPC said it planned to expand the use of drone technology across its operations to continue reducing risk.