Car repair shops fear frantic spring and idle autumn as WoF extensions continue

Tuesday, 23 June 2020

The backlog of extended warrants is starting to decline as 'conscientious' drivers bring in their vehicles for checks but still totals about 500,000, which could mean a crazily-busy spring for repair shops.

Car repairers will face a backlog of cars needing warrants of fitness in the months before Christmas, with the Government yet to set a date for an end to a Covid-19 amnesty, the Motor Trade Association says.

MTA strategy manager Greig Epps said about 500,000 vehicles and trailers, including about 360,000 cars, whose warrants expired this year had yet to be warranted.

'That is a good three-quarters of a month of backlog.'

On April 9, the Transport Agency announced that vehicle owners with warrants that expired this year could have until 'up to October 10' to get the checks done.

The agency is however now 'encouraging' drivers to bring cars in for warrants now that all vehicle inspection sites have reopened.

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Epps believed Transport Minister Phil Twford might be close to approving an end to the amnesty which would mean that warrants of fitness would need to be renewed as normal from some time in August.

'What we need is for the Government to be setting those time frames.

'The longer we wait, the more vehicles are out there where people are holding off.'

Transport Agency spokesman Andrew Knackstedt said on April 30, following the country's drop down to alert level 3, that the expiry dates of temporarily extended documents was being assessed 'as a matter of priority'.

Epps said one of the knock-on effects of the amnesty is that fewer than 100,000 cars would be due for warrants next April, rather than the normal 400,000.

That lumpy seasonal demand caused by the amnesty could then perpetuate indefinitely out into future years.

'I just don't think there is an answer to it,' Epps said.

'It is going to leave businesses with downtime which they probably can't afford.'

Epps noted that regardless of the amnesty, drivers still had an obligation to ensure their cars were safely maintained.

In a positive sign, the number of cars being brought forward for warrants in June had first returned to normal and then increased to slightly above usual volumes, he said.

'The numbers have been getting better over the past couple of weeks.

'We might be something like 90,000 to 100,000 up this month over normal.'

That might be because some people with warrants that expired in June might not know there was an extension.

But a drop in the warrant failure-rate from about 40 per cent to 30 per cent indicated it was mostly 'conscientious' car owners who were getting warrants done now, Epps said.

There would probably need to be an information campaign in the next couple of months, once the Government made a decision, to advise people of their obligations, he said.

'But we need that date so that everyone has got a bit more certainty.'

The fact more people might be planning road trips to holiday in New Zealand this summer could make the pre-Christmas rush to get cars checked even more severe, he said.