Proposal 7: Changes to charges for commercial users and councils that access Waka Kotahi data

Summary of Proposal 7

Waka Kotahi collects and securely stores vehicle and driver data on the Motor Vehicle Register (MVR) and Driver Licence Register (DLR). Ongoing access to our secure data is limited to:

• approved commercial data users
• businesses who want to connect to our data systems
• Councils and council-controlled organisations (for example, entities like Auckland Transport and airport authorities owned by councils)
• central government agencies, the wider state sector and entities acting on their behalf that use this information for law enforcement purposes.

Individuals and businesses can also make one-off requests for data.

This proposal only relates to commercial and council data users.

These users generate over 69 million data transactions each year.  Each year we have approximately:

• 6.5 million data transaction requests for Driver Licence Verification Service (DLVS) from commercial users (finance companies, banks, insurers, data solution providers, vehicle history sellers) and councils
• 62 million data transaction requests for MVR from commercial users and councils.

Why are we proposing these changes?

The current range of fees for data access were set more than 10 years ago. We haven’t changed fees to cover the costs of meeting increased requirements for IT security standards and privacy, or the need to scale the system to keep pace with demand. Our data systems aren’t currently able to provide the level of service users expect, nor can we currently pay for system improvements to keep pace with changing technology. As a result, we’re experiencing an increasing number of complaints.

We’re proposing to charge councils and their entities, as well as private parking companies that access our data to issue parking enforcement and related safety infringements. While these activities do contribute to the regulatory system and to overall safety, both councils and private parking companies get a substantial financial benefit from the fines they issue, and a small charge for this benefit is considered appropriate.

It costs Waka Kotahi money (in providing and maintaining portals, and in staff time) to make sure our data is accurate and usable and to provide the data, and these user groups should contribute to these costs. Having a per request charge is a simple and fair way of making sure costs are recovered from the right parties – one-off users pay per request, and companies who make thousands of requests also pay per request.

It also costs us money to connect new users to our data systems. We need to establish ways to recover the costs from each business that wants to access our data.

How and when would the changes take place?

Changes to give effect to the above proposals would be through new regulations, or amending or replacing regulations made under sections 167, 168, 199 and 269(1)(q)(i) and Part 17 of the LTA 1998, with effect on or before October 2023.

Tables – Charges affected by Proposal 7

There are 2 charges in this section. They are summarised in the table below.

Proposed fees in the following tables assume that additional government funding is secured through the use of section 9(1A) of the Land Transport Management Act 2003 (outlined in Proposal 1). You will notice a column showing the estimated impact if s9(1A) is unsuccessful.

Table 19: Proposed set charge for MVR data users’ group (GST inclusive) (updated 26 April 2022)

Table 20: Proposed set charge for DLR data users’ group (GST inclusive) (updated 26 April 2022)