RTF welcomes CoF and licence extensions

The Road Transport Forum (RTF) welcomes Transport Minister Michael Wood’s announcement today that driver licences, Warrants of Fitness (WoFs), Certificates of Fitness (CoFs), vehicle licences and licence endorsements that expired on or after 21 July 2021 will be valid until 30 November 2021, says chief executive Nick Leggett.

"In our heavily regulated industry, paperwork matters," Leggett says. "For that reason, since the start of the Level 4 lockdown, the RTF has been asking for a formal statement from the Government that the critical licences and certificates to keep drivers and the trucks on the road.

"That has arrived today and we couldn’t be happier. One of our big concerns was insurance cover, which is why this extension for the paperwork needed to come from the very top.

"The RTF has worked with Minister Wood and his officials and we thank them for listening to us and delivering this result. Level 4 conditions prevented any of these certificates and licences being processed.

"The end of November will soon be upon us, and there is a backlog for these certificates and licences, so I urge the industry to plan ahead to make sure they get all their people and trucks covered by the end of November," Leggett says.

About Road Transport Forum New Zealand (RTF)

RTF provides unified national representation for several regional trucking associations. RTF members include Road Transport Association NZ, National Road Carriers, and NZ Trucking Association. The affiliated representation of the RTF is about 3,000 individual road transport companies which in turn, operate 16-18,000 trucks involved in road freight transport, as well as companies that provide services allied to road freight transport.

The road freight transport industry employs 32,868 people (2.0% of the workforce), has a gross annual turnover of $6 billion, and transports 93% of the total tonnes of freight moved in New Zealand.

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