Three tow bar manufacturers want the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) to pay for the re-certification of more than 1400 customer tow bars, after it revoked the certification of an approved engineer.
Aro Bros Ltd, Acker Bilt Ltd and Counties Commercial Ltd are the three tow bar manufacturers affected by NZTA revoking the certification of NZTA-approved engineer Patrick Chu.
Tow bars that had been certified by him now have to be re-certified. NZTA states on its website that it will not pay for these re-certifications. The costs now fall on the owners, and each re-certification will cost 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,” says Aro Bros director Shirley Aro.
“There are more than 1400 tow bars that need to be re-certified, and our group manufactured approximately 1000 of these,” says Aro.
The three tow bar manufacturers say that NZTA paid for other vehicle owners’ re-certifications when another certifier’s certification was suspended in circumstances very similar to these.
They say that 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,” says Aro.
“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,” she says.
