Government standards review of LVV system

UDM press release statement re current Government standards review of LVV system 6.7.15

Recent LVVTA press releases which purport to welcome the current LVV review need to be considered in the light of the performance that prompted said review.

On 19th December 2013 NZTA deregistered all UDM vehicles on the basis of suspected safety issues claimed on engineering advice supplied by the LVVTA

Those 3 issues were
The Composite aluminium honeycomb floor would only support 300Kg (required to support 650Kg)
The floor “glue” (quote) would allow the floor to fall out.
The rear suspension had excessive bump steer of combined 40mm and was dangerous

Following a subsequent engineering report commissioned by the NZTA the qualified experts found

The floor supports 1400Kg, over double its required load by manufacturer supplied calculation tables and subsequently proved by testing
The 2 Pak Epoxy bonding the floor had an optimized load rating of over 400 tonnes calculated on label instruction, subsequently proved by testing
The rear suspension was laser measured at between 0- 9mm combined max bump steer on all cars and was safe.

The self congratulatory back slapping evident in all LVVTA statements has yet to be tested under real world scrutiny, and if a similar survey carried out privately is anything to go by, the commercial industry so reliant on LVVTA efficiency shortcomings is well aware of the issues.

In UDM’s case, it accepts that NZ public need access to an individual hobby car certification system. UDM’s beef is that with current LVVTA management reliance on a prescriptive outdated manual, lack of standards testing criteria, and a non professional dictatorial engineering approach with no right of appeal, borders on incompetence when applied to modern commercial production ventures. This forces innovative commercial operations to rely on overseas homologation, or move production abroad to the detriment of all New Zealanders.

Currently the NZTA through its certifying agency LVVTA is not capable of certifying modern NZ manufactured vehicles. If proof is required, the bulk of NZ made campervans are now certified to Australian standards, all government vehicles, Police Fire and Ambulance are exempted, and there is now no innovative modern automotive production vehicle commercially produced in NZ.

The time for slick PR is long gone, as should be the current Low volume rules applied to commercial production vehicles. What is required is an International standards based evaluation system, operated and inspected by tertiary qualified automotive engineers who can take legal responsibility for their assessments. This is what the heavy transport industry requires and gets, and with the burgeoning complexity of modern vehicles , anything less leaves the NZ publics safety short changed.

UDM Wheelchair Driver vehicles still remain uncertified in New Zealand, but continue to be manufactured and certified in Europe until the NZ LVV system is brought into the 21st century

Written by Roger Phillips
CEO U Drive Mobility NZ Ltd

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