Towbar makers call for NZTA to pay for re-certifications

In an open letter today, three towbar manufacturers (Aro Bros Ltd, Acker Bilt Ltd and Counties Commercial Ltd) called on the New Zealand Transport Agency to pay for customers’ towbar re-certifications after an NZTA approved certifier had his certification revoked by NZTA.

After 11 years of being certified by NZTA, Patrick Chu (an NZTA-Approved engineer) had his certification revoked and towbars that had been certified by him now have to be re-certified. NZTA states on its website that they will not pay for these re-certifications. The costs now fall on the owners, and each re-certification will cost anywhere up to $1,000 each.

“NZTA has said to all customers who relied on its appointment and advertisement of Mr Chu, as a qualified certifier, that they must pay the cost of NZTA’s wrongful certification. It is not fair, and completely unacceptable,” said Shirley Aro, Director of Aro Bros and one of the signatories to the letter to NZTA.

Ms Aro said, “There are over 1,400 towbars that need to be re-certified, and our group manufactured approximately 1,000 of these towbars. If we are forced to cover the cost of re-certifications, our businesses will not survive. We do not think that it is fair or acceptable that we, as manufacturers, or our customers, have to foot the bill when we relied on NZTA’s list of approved certifiers."

The three towbar manufacturers are calling on NZTA to cover the costs of the towbar re-certifications, given Mr Chu was not properly regulated by NZTA. Also, NZTA paid for other vehicle owners’ re-certifications when another certifier’s certification was suspended in circumstances very similar to these.

NZTA advised of the revocation on the second to last working day before the Christmas break, which was when many families were travelling for their summer holidays and NZTA-approved certifiers were on leave.

“We want to know why NZTA are saddling owners and manufacturers with the costs of obtaining new certifications when people only used Mr Chu because he was approved by NZTA and listed by them as an approved certifier.”

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