Simon Tapper

Simon Tapper (Simon Kenneth Purcell) (1955–2010) was a New Zealand transport leader and innovator.

Personal
Tapper was the youngest son and fourth youngest of thirteen children. He was raised in Auckland and Kumeu, and educated at St Peter's College, Auckland. As a young man, he worked in Australia and Papua New Guinea before returning to New Zealand in 1984 to join his brother Chris Tapper in setting up Tapper Transport. He was "gregarious and hospitable" and "a Catholic boy at heart he died, fittingly, on St Patrick's day". He was survived by wife Linda, children Shaun, Bridget and Rachael, former wife Claire, and four brothers and four sisters.

Tapper transport
In 1990 Tapper Transport, together with Carr & Haslam and Bridge Freight and the stevedores, Leonard & Dingley, opened the New Zealand's first less-than container load (LCL) container freight station in Otahuhu. They were also joined by a new partner, Andrew Scott, and moved to Onehunga. The next year Tappers bought out the others and rationalised the operation as the Tapper freight station, a division of Tapper Transport. By then they were unpacking LCL containers the day they were discharged from the ship, and that year made their first profit. The company also gained a competitive advantage by working overnight to take advantage of unclogged night roads. For five years, Tapper Transport was the only wharf carrier in New Zealand that worked overnight. In 2010, just prior to Tapper's death, Tapper Transport was sold to Port of Tauranga with the aim of expanding the Southdown inland freight terminal into an inland port, at a location central to 80 per cent of Auckland's importers and exporters. Simon Tapper helped transform Auckland's container freight industry and Tapper Transport became Australasia's biggest freight of all kinds (FAK) container freight station.

Industry contribution
Tapper was an executive member of the Auckland Road Transport Association in 1987, a national member in 2003, director of the Road Transport Forum in 2005, and chairman of the board in 2008. For more than twenty years he was prominent among the road transport groups liaising with ports. He also played a part on the Auckland Regional Council's regional transport committee and contributed to MAF, Customs and sustainable freight projects.