This rule covers safety and maintenance requirements for equipment fitted to motor vehicles: warning devices, speedometers, sun visors, mudguards, footrests on motorcycles and mopeds, child restraints, televisions, fuel tanks and fuel lines.
Note: Both of these pages will also provide links to the consultation material – such as summary of submissions and FAQs (questions and answers) – for each version and amendment.
Questions and answers are provided to accompany a new rule or amendment when they are signed. These and other consultation documents on this page have not been updated to take into account any later rule amendments and are retained for historic interest only.
The Minister of Transport has signed the following new amendment Rules:
These amendment Rules were consulted on as part of the draft Land Transport Rule: Omnibus Amendment 2009 (the draft Omnibus Amendment Rule).
Following consultation, the provisions in the draft Omnibus Amendment Rule were split into separate amendment Rules.
The amendment Rules make relatively minor changes to Rules. The changes are required:
In addition to updating definitions and making consequential changes arising from changes to other legislation and other minor changes, the changes made in individual amendment Rules include:
Driver Licensing Amendment. The amendment Rule amendsSchedule 3I of Land Transport (Driver Licensing) Rule 1999 (relating to classes of driver licence) to make minor adjustments to weight limits prescribed for certain motor vehicles, for the sake of consistency.
Frontal Impact Amendment. The amendment Rule clarifies thatLand Transport Rule: Seatbelts and Seatbelt Anchorages 2002 (the Seatbelt Rule) prevails over Land Transport Rule: Frontal Impact 2001, in determining the requirements relating to seatbelts in vehicles required to comply with frontal impact standards. Vehicle importers, therefore, are allowed to remove seatbelts that are not required by the Seatbelts Rule to be fitted in specified seating positions in certain vehicles, even though the Frontal Impact Rule prohibits the removal of occupant-protection equipment.
Operator Licensing Amendment. This amendment Rule addresses a concern that passenger service vehicle operators may have about their safety and privacy, by providing an alternative to displaying their transport service licence card. The Rule removes an anomaly in the legislation so as to require a person or organisation operating an approved taxi organisation (ATO) to apply to the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) in order to operate as an ATO. In time, regulations will make it an offence to do so before gaining the NZTA's approval. The Rule also clarifies that forklifts do not have to be operated under a goods service licence.
Operator Safety Rating Amendment. The amendment will allow an operator's vehicle crash history to be included as part of a safety rating at the discretion of the NZTA, rather than being a mandatory requirement. It will also allow a panel that is being set up to review a proposed rating to consist of only three people, if there is a limited set of disputed events and they do not involve complex issues.
Passenger Service Vehicles Amendment. The objective of this Rule is to provide alternative standards to UN/ECE regulations that have been cancelled. This will enable imported vehicles that must comply with those standards to be certified for compliance with the technical requirements in Land Transport Rule: Passenger Service Vehicles 1999.
Vehicle Equipment Amendment. This amendment Rule will allow for the aftermarket fitting of satellite navigation systems operated by way of a mobile phone secured in a mounting that is fixed to a vehicle. It brings Land Transport Rule: Vehicle Equipment 2004 into line with recent changes to the Land Transport (Road User) Rule 2004 relating to the use of mobile phones while driving.
Vehicle Exhaust Emissions Amendment. This amendment Rule replicates, in Land Transport Rule: Vehicle Exhaust Emissions 2007, the provisions in the Frontal Impact Rule relating to 'immigrants' vehicles', and allows a vehicle that does not comply with New Zealand vehicle exhaust emissions standards to be certified for use on the road if it meets the criteria to be categorised as an immigrant's vehicle. It also updates the Vehicle Exhaust Emissions Rule to include the vehicle emissions standard Euro 5.
Vehicle Standards Compliance Amendment. This amendment Rule amends the definition of a Class AB vehicle (power-assisted pedal cycle) in Land Transport Rule: Vehicle Standards Compliance 2002and 19 other Land Transport Rules. The change aligns the definition in these vehicle Rules with that in the Road User Rule.
With the exception of Land Transport Rule: Operator Safety Rating Amendment 2010, which will be brought into effect by Gazette notice at a later date, these amendment Rules come into force on 1 April 2010.
Yes. In November 2009, the NZTA advised about 1800 groups and individuals registered on the Rules consultation database, by letter or email, of the proposed changes and invited them to make submissions. Printed copies of the draft Omnibus Amendment Rule and the summary of the proposed changes were made available on request. The draft Omnibus Amendment Rule and information material were also available on the NZTA's website.
Public notices seeking submissions were published in the daily newspapers in the major centres (Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin), in selected regional daily newspapers and in the New Zealand Gazette. The NZTA received 257 submissions on the draft Omnibus Amendment Rule.
Following consultation, these changes were included with the proposals for improving the productivity of the heavy vehicle fleet that were consulted on in draft Land Transport Rule: Vehicle Dimensions and Mass Amendment [(No 2) 2009]. (Note: This Rule has now been signed into law as Land Transport Rule: Vehicle Dimensions and Mass Amendment 2010. It comes into force on 1 May 2010.)
The Land Transport Act 1998 allows the Minister of Transport to make Land Transport Rules. Rules are drafted in plain English and go through an extensive consultation process with interested groups and the public. This is to ensure that they are easily understood and are widely complied with. Rules are usually prepared by the NZTA under contract to the Ministry of Transport and, like regulations, have the force of law.
Final rules are available on our website(external link). Printed copies of Land Transport Rules can be purchased from selected bookshops throughout New Zealand that sell legislation. Most Rules can also be purchased from the Rule printers and distributors, Wickliffe Ltd, telephone (06) 358 8231. The Land Transport (Driver Licensing) Amendment Rule 2010 can be purchased from Legislation Direct, telephone (04) 568 0005.
Rules may also be inspected at regional offices of the NZTA.
A newsletter outlining the changes to the Rules will be sent to groups and individuals who registered their interest in the Rules that have been amended.
The NZTA will update any relevant Factsheets or other information material available on its website to reflect the changes brought about by the amendment Rules.
You can call the NZTA Contact Centre on 0800 699 000 if you require more information about the amendment Rules.
