Workplace travel plans
As part of our commitment to reducing congestion on New Zealand roads, we encourage you to consider alternative options for your business's travel. You can do this through a 'workplace travel plan', which is designed to encourage your staff to travel to and from work by public transport, on foot, by bike or by car share, and to improve access to your workplace.
A workplace travel plan can help you to:
- solve parking and space problems
- achieve real cost savings
- improve your organisation's image
- increase opportunities for accessing your workplace
- promote a healthier and more motivated workforce
- gain environmental accreditation.
Find out more about workplace travel plans.
Choosing your vehicles
All vehicles used on New Zealand roads must meet a range of requirements. Find out more about the requirements for fleet vehicles, including guidance on importing vehicles and choosing safe and efficient vehicles.
Maintaining your vehicles
As an important tool for your business, your vehicles require regular inspections and maintenance to ensure they are safe to use on the roads and perform efficiently with minimum downtime and unplanned repairs.
Vehicles that are maintained safely and efficiently also cost less to run, are less likely to be out of service for extended periods and are less likely to be involved in crashes.
Maintaining warrants of fitness
All vehicles must be regularly inspected to check their roadworthiness. This includes ensuring they continually meet warrant of fitness (WoF) and certificate of fitness (CoF) standards.
For light vehicles, ie most cars, vans, utes and four-wheel drives, this involves a warrant of fitness (WoF) check. If your light vehicle was first registered anywhere in the world less than six years ago, it must undergo a WoF check every 12 months. Older vehicles must be checked every six months.
Heavy vehicles, ie trucks, buses and heavy trailers, and vehicles operating under a transport service licence, must undergo a certificate of fitness (CoF) inspection every six months, regardless of their age.
It's your responsibility to keep your vehicle in the same condition as when it passed the WoF or CoF. For example, while the tyres on a vehicle may pass on the day of its inspection, you'll need to replace them before the tread gets to the minimum depth. If you wait until the next inspection you increase the risk of having an accident or receiving a fine.
It's illegal to drive a vehicle...
- If it doesn't meet WoF of CoF requirements.
- If it doesn't display a valid WoF or CoF label.
You can drive your vehicle on the road under these circumstances only when taking it for a short distance for repair or to get a new WoF or CoF - and it's safe to do so.
Find out more about the WoF process or CoF process, and where to find your nearest testing station.
Fuel-efficient vehicles
Our Fuelsaver website has useful information on choosing a fuel-efficient vehicle, along with practical advice on what can be saved by changing driver habits.
You may also like to find out more about GreenFleet (external link), a programme developed by the Sustainable Business Network that enables businesses to reduce the impacts of vehicle fleets on the environment and people.
Checking vehicles before use
Encourage your drivers to do a simple pre-use 'walk-around' check before they drive any vehicle.
This will help to ensure the vehicle is safe to operate and enable you to identify the need for, and schedule, repairs and maintenance - reducing the need to deal with unexpected breakdowns. That could also mean long-term savings for your business.
As a minimum, drivers should check that:
- tyres are inflated with close-to-equal pressure and have a legal tread depth with no uneven wear
- wheel nuts (where they can be seen) are in place and the wheels appear undamaged
- there's no obvious damage to the vehicle that could be considered dangerous
- indicators, tail lights and brake lights operate correctly and the lenses are not cracked or broken
- headlights work on both high and low beam and lenses are not cracked or broken
- windscreen washers and wipers operate satisfactorily
- the horn operates satisfactorily
- the vehicle registration and WoF or CoF are current (as well as the road user charges label if you have a diesel or heavy vehicle)
- safety belts are in good condition
- the engine fluid levels (water and oil) are correct.
Reporting vehicle faults
Best practice fleet management includes a system for drivers to report any vehicle faults they find, and a process for advising drivers on what happens about the reported faults. Make sure you have a vehicle fault reporting and resolution system in your business.
Assessing the costs of crashes
The true cost of a crash is always far greater than the cost of repairing the physical damage to the vehicle (the visual cost). International guidelines suggest that up to 90 percent of the true cost of a motor vehicle crash is not always readily apparent. This is often referred to as the 'iceberg effect'.
Your insurance broker or agent can help you to identify the true cost of motor vehicle crashes in your fleet and their effects on your business's financial viability.
Developing a safe driving policy
Every dent, prang, speeding ticket or collision involving your vehicles will affect your business's financial bottom line. So it makes sense to encourage safe driving - and potentially save lives - by making it an integral part of your business policy.
Get help with developing a safe driving policy.
