VEHICLE LICENSING EXTENDED

Concerns about the expiry of licensing for vehicles over the lockdown period were put to rest following NZTA’s announcement of a temporary extension for WoFs, CoFs, endorsements and more

Around 600,000 WoFs and CoFs, 800,000 vehicle licences, 40,000 driver licences, and 12,500 endorsements were expected to expire between 24 March 2020 and 17 May 2020. Given these numbers, as well as concerns raised from across the industry, NZTA was conscious of the need to manage the potential spike in demand for vehicle inspections and driver licensing requests once they could be completed again.

Following discussions on the rules around expired licensing and vehicle documentation during lockdown, Cabinet approved the Minister of Transport’s recommendation to temporarily extend driver licences, endorsements and vehicle certification documents. This took effect on 10 April.

For business owners in the construction industry, who own a fleet of vehicles or have employees with expired or soon-to-expire licenses, this creates some breathing room and is intended to provide a smoother transition and allow time to get everything in order.

Below is a list of the expired documents that will receive the extension:

• Warrants of Fitness (WoFs) and Certificates of Fitness (CoFs), driver licences, and vehicle certifications issued under the Vehicle Standards Compliance Rule that expired on or after 1 January 2020.
• Endorsements (including drivers of passenger services and dangerous good endorsements held by some truck drivers) that expired on or after 1 March 2020.
• Current vehicle licence (registration), if the vehicle licence expired on or after 1 January 2020.

NZTA will set expiry dates for these documents once business is back to normal, with extensions reaching as far as 10 October 2020. At the time of printing, these dates had not yet been released, but will be published on the NZTA website.