10,000 vehicles affected by WOF trials as part of the review by New Zealand's Transportation Agency

The New Zealand Transportation Agency has put a severe brake on law enforcement, with approximately 10,000 vehicles recalled pending verification of their physical condition and 74 enforcement actions underway.

The law firm Meredith Connell, which was responsible for all the compliance functions of the transport agencies at the end of September, has now completed processing most of the 870 files it was tasked to revise. .

Meredith Connell, Managing Partner, Steve Haszard, led the project. He said that out of the 160 most urgent cases, 74 had resulted in compliance measures regarding transportation and vehicle inspection services and driver training.

19 others required an additional urgent inquiry. The rest of the files had been closed or did not require immediate action.

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Hazard indicated that in case of serious risk to the safety of land transport, the legislation allowed the NZTA to insist that certifiers or transport companies immediately cease their activities.

Implementing measures would continue on an ongoing basis over the coming weeks, details being published on the agency's web page.

The problems with the WOF standards were revealed publicly last week with a recall of nearly 6,000 cars after Dargaville Diesel Services and Westland Automotive and Tire in Auckland had their authority to suspend WOF operations due to non-compliant inspections Standards.

In the most recent announcement, the NZTA said that vehicle owners had been contacted following the suspension of associate inspectors at Orient Motors in Auckland (3,494 vehicles), Te Aroha Automotive (613 vehicles) and AA North Shore ( 31 vehicles).

"It's impossible to know when we discover a certifier who has not done a very good job on a few vehicles and who said that it meant that he had done a bad job on all the vehicles that were in the car. he had certified in the past.

"So we took a very conservative approach and we write to all those who currently have a WOF document issued by the person concerned.

"We strongly encourage them to take their vehicle and have it re-certified, and NZTA will take care of that."

The number of vehicle owners involved is now rising to around 10,000.

Proposals for the revocation of 47 licenses were mainly in the trucking sector, from small businesses to large fleets. Just over half of them were individual drivers.

The could continue to work until a final decision on revocation is made.

Haszard stated that they had chosen not to name the companies involved as there was little risk to the public and that they now had the opportunity to respond to the concerns expressed by the NZTA in order to avoid the risks. avoid losing their licenses.

But if the risks were sufficient, they would be identified.

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

He said that although they had passed the first stage of the exam, there was still a lot of work to be done and it would probably take a few more months.

"I was surprised by the magnitude and scope of what we were asked to do.It is a very large project and, because of the risks involved, we have had to proceed urgently. "

Last week, Transportation Minister Phil Twyford instructed his department to conduct an external review of NZTA's regulatory operations, such as driving tests, vehicle certification, and driver and driver licensing. transportation services.