Working with Land Transport NZ

A guide for holders of transport service licences and approved taxi organisations in New Zealand

December 2006

Print version: Working with Land Transport NZ (PDF, 562 KB, 16 pages)

1. Introduction

Safe, stable and efficient freight and passenger transport industries are critical to New Zealand’s economic growth. It’s important that transport service licence (TSL) holders and approved taxi organisations (ATOs)¹are able to run successful businesses within a regulatory environment that promotes investment while encouraging and ensuring safe management practices. Regulatory activity needs to be carried out in such a way that it leads to and maintains a level playing field for operators.

All licence holders are required to comply with a range of rules and regulations designed to protect other road users. This ensures an equitable contribution (through systems like road user charges²) to funding for the transport infrastructure. It is also likely that legislation designed to ensure environmental sustainability will be included within rules and regulations in the future.

Three government agencies have prime responsibility for ensuring compliance with the rules and regulations applicable to licence holders. These are the Department of Labour, NZ Police and Land Transport NZ³.

As part of Land Transport NZ’s new approach to regulatory management, the Commercial Road Transport Unit (CRTU) is combining traditional enforcement and investigative actions with advice and guidance in its work with licence holders.

This booklet explains how licence holders can work with Land Transport NZ in improving their regulatory performance.

¹ TSL holders and holders of ATO status are referred to as ‘licence holders’ throughout this guide.

² For more information on road user charges, see Road user charges below.

³ These agencies carry out the following roles:

• Department of Labour – workplace health and safety.
• NZ Police – roadside enforcement and investigations, including health and safety breaches.
• Land Transport NZ – licensing individuals and organisations, registering and licensing vehicles, vehicle inspections and certifications and road user charge payments, refunds and recoveries.

2. How we work with the transport industry

The CRTU assists and advises the transport industry to improve compliance with regulations and standards by directing its resources to address areas of identified non-compliance and high risk. With this in mind, the following lifecycle of a licence holder has been defined:

The CRTU carries out a number of regulatory activities, including:

• providing applicants with information. CRTU staff provide pre-entry information to assist TSL and ATO applicants with their applications.
• processing applications. The CRTU carries out all activities associated with the processing of these applications, and grants (or declines) TSLs or ATO status.
• monitoring performance. The CRTU works closely with all new licence holders for the first two years. A risk profile is developed for each licence holder to assist the CRTU to provide advice and guidance on the licence holder’s regulatory performance and responsibilities.
• conducting reviews of licence holders. All established licence holders are reviewed periodically by the CRTU to help assess their regulatory performance and to address any issues and identify opportunities for improvement.
• investigations. Where necessary, the CRTU conducts investigations of licence holders who are not meeting their legal or regulatory responsibilities. Action will need to be taken to improve performance or, if deemed appropriate, a recommendation will be made to revoke the TSL or ATO status.
• independent reviews. Commercial licensing managers independently review any recommendation to decline or revoke a licence.
  

The following diagram illustrates how these activities relate to the lifecycle of licence holders.

The people in the CRTU perform the following functions:

• Commercial road transport administrators (CRTAs) advise TSL and ATO applicants and process applications.
• Transport regulatory advisors (TRAs) work with licence holders to help them comply with rules and regulations. Performance is assessed through periodic reviews.
• Vehicle standards advisors (VSAs) work with licence holders to ensure that their vehicles comply with rules, regulations vehicle standards (certificate of fitness requirements). They assist the TRAs with reviews and provide investigators with specialist vehicle advice.
• Investigators gather evidence on applicants and licence holders who break (or have broken) the law or fail to meet regulatory responsibilities. An investigator may recommend that a licence or ATO status be revoked or may suggest an advisory team work with the licence holder to improve their performance.
• Commercial licensing managers independently review then decide on any adverse recommendations made about an applicant or existing licence holder.
• Regional transport advisors manage the CRTAs, TRAs and VSAs.
• Transport relationship managers are responsible for enhancing key relationships in their region of responsibility. They work with the transport industry and other government agencies to identify opportunities to improve the performance and viability of the commercial road transport industry.
  

The following diagram illustrates when a licence holder is likely work with CRTU staff.

 

3. The operator rating system

Regulations exist to protect licence holders, their drivers and customers, and to improve road safety for all road users. Unfortunately, some licence holders take illegal shortcuts. These actions may undermine the business of compliant licence holders and result in unsafe vehicles and driving behaviour on the road.

Land Transport NZ is working towards an environment where businesses can select licence holders with high safety standards. The operator rating system, expected in 2009, will enable regulatory activities and roadside enforcement to be targeted to where it is most needed. As part of the approach, Land Transport NZ will rate licence holders based on their regulatory performance and may make these ratings available to the public.

The CRTU is combining traditional enforcement and investigative actions with advice and guidance in its work with licence holders. Much of the focus will be on CRTU customising this advice for individual licence holders. Land Transport NZ and NZ Police will also collect, analyse and share information on the state of regulatory compliance within the industry. This information may be shared, where appropriate, with other government agencies. Licence holders should note that their current performance may affect their future ratings.

4. Contact us

For more information, call your nearest NZ Transport Agency office.

For questions about:

• ongoing TSL and ATO applications, or to apply for a TSL or for ATO status – ask to speak to a commercial road transport administrator
• ensuring that your business complies with transport/vehicle regulations and standards – ask to speak to a regional transport advisor
• the commercial transport industry or government agency networks involved in commercial road transport – ask to speak with the transport relationship manager.

You can help by:

• regularly assessing your own performance
• contacting Land Transport NZ for advice and assistance

Road user charges

Road user charges (RUC) are applicable to all vehicles with a manufacturer’s gross laden weight or all vehicles of 3.5 tonnes or less that are powered by a fuel that is not taxed at source eg, deisel.

RUC audit and investigation functions by Land Transport NZ’s Economic Compliance unit.

For enquiries concerning RUC administration, call the RUC Contact Centre at 0800 655 644.

Page created: 10 April 2007