10,000 vehicles affected by WOF retests in NZ Transport Agency review

Thursday, 29 November 2018

The NZ Transport Agency clamp down on enforcement is spreading rapidly with about 10,000 vehicles now recalled for warrant of fitness checks and 74 enforcement actions underway. 

Law firm Meredith Connell, which was put in charge of all transport agency compliance functions in late September, has now finished working through most of the 870 files it was asked to review. 

Meredith Connell managing partner Steve Haszard has headed the project and he said of the 160 most urgent cases, 74 had resulted in some form of compliance action over transport and vehicle inspection services and driver training.

A further 19 needed further urgent investigation. 

**READ MORE:

* Review after transport safety agency's WOF system failure

* 'Heads will roll': Over 3700 Auckland motorists urged to get WOF rechecks after certifier suspended  

* Transport agency review finds more evidence of serious incidents and crashes 

* Wrongly warranted car crashes causing death, NZTA shares blame**

Hazard said where there was a serious risk to land transport safety, legislation allowed for NZTA to insist that certifiers or transport businesses immediately cease operations. 

Enforcement actions would continue on a rolling basis over the coming weeks with details published on the agency's webpage.

Problems with WOF standards were first publicly revealed last week with a recall of just under 6000 cars after Dargaville Diesel Services and Westland Automotive and Tyre in Auckland had their authority to do WOFs suspended because of substandard inspections.

In the most recent announcement NZTA said vehicle owners were being contacted following the suspension of inspectors associated with Orient Motors in Auckland (3494 vehicles), Te Aroha Automotive (613 vehicles) and AA North Shore (31 vehicles).

'It's impossible to know when we uncover a certifier who has not been doing a very good job in relation to a few vehicles as to whether that means he did a poor job on all the vehicles he certified in the past.

'So we've taken a very conservative approach and we're writing to everyone who has a current WOF issued by the particular individual involved.

'We're strongly encouraging them to take their vehicle and get it recertified, and NZTA will pick up the tab for that.'

The number of affected vehicle owners now stands at about 10,000.

Proposals to revoke 47 licences mostly affected the trucking industry, ranging from small companies to those with large fleets, and just over half of them of them were individual drivers.

They could continue operating until a final decision on revocation was made and Haszard said they had opted not to name those businesses while investigations were ongoing, and they now had an opportunity to act on the concerns raised by NZTA to avoid losing their licences.

'If and when we get to the point where we think the risk is sufficient that people should know, we will tell people, no question about that.'

Four truck drivers were suspended immediately because of convictions and one had a serious health issue.

Hszard said that although they were through the first stage of the review, there was still a lot of work to do and it would likely take a few more months.  

'I was surprised at the size and scale of what we were asked to do, it's a really really big project and because of the risk involved we had to proceed with urgency.

'People can feel assured that the NZTA has shifted gears and is taking its regulatory enforcement responsibilities much more seriously and rigorously.'