Application information (WoF and CoF)
Your responsibilities as an inspecting organisation (IO)
If we appoint you as an IO you’ll be responsible for:
- putting safe vehicles on New Zealand’s roads
- following all relevant legislation, rules and guidelines (including your Notice of appointment and the Vehicle inspection requirements manual (VIRM))
- making sure all vehicle inspectors (VIs) at your site perform to a high standard and have the tools and equipment they need to complete inspections.
We also expect you to:
- be a champion and role model for:
- driving safely
- driving to the conditions of your driver licence
- keeping your vehicles compliant, for example having a current inspection and vehicle licence (rego)
- create a culture in your organisation that enhances the industry’s reputation
- work with us in a constructive and cooperative way.
Vehicle inspection requirements manual (VIRM)
Change of ownership applications
A change of ownership doesn’t buy the IO appointment.
This means you can’t inspect vehicles until your organisation has been appointed as an IO at the site you’re applying for.
If your application is successful, to appoint you as an IO the seller will need to:
- move to a new site (and send us a relocation application), or
- surrender their appointment at that site.
They can surrender their appointment by completing a Surrender an IO, VI, or specialist certifier appointment (VOLSUR) form. Please email the completed form to us with your IO application so we can match them up quickly.
Surrender an IO, VI, or specialist certifier appointment (VOLSUR)
How the application process works
1. Get your criminal record check from the Ministry of Justice (if needed).
2. Send us:
-
- a complete application form
- a Fit and proper person disclosure and consent (FP01) form for each person we complete fit and proper person checks for
- any other documents to support your application.
3. We’ll assess your application and let you know if you meet our requirements to move on to a site assessment.
4. If you meet our requirements, a certification officer will visit you at your site and complete the site assessment. At the site assessment, be prepared to talk to them about your:
- quality management system
- conflicts of interest
- responsibilities under a Notice of appointment.
You’ll also need to have your insurance policies available for them to check.
5. If your site assessment is successful, we’ll appoint you as an IO.
Submitting or updating your application
Submitting your application
Make sure you've completed all sections of the form, and supplied all supporting documents (if your application is incomplete, we'll send it back to you).
Email it to vehicleinspections@nzta.govt.nz or post it to:
Provider Licensing
NZ Transport Agency
Private Bag 11777
Palmerston North 4442
Updating your application
If anything changes while we’re assessing your application, email vehicleinspections@nzta.govt.nz to let us know as soon as possible. If you don’t, it could delay your application.
Changes include (but aren’t limited to):
- changing the legal entity you’re applying as
- adding or removing partners in a partnership
- adding or removing directors or major shareholders in a company
- adding or removing VIs
- changing your site address
- changing your trading as name
- becoming a Motor Trade Association (MTA) member or ending your MTA membership
- using a consultant or ending your contract with a consultant.
General application requirements
Land Transport Rule: Vehicle Standards Compliance 2002
We assess IO applications under section 2.5 of the Land Transport Rule: Vehicle Standards Compliance 2002
Insurance
All IOs must have:
- public liability insurance to cover accidental injury to other people or damage to their property, and
- professional indemnity insurance to cover the risk of making a professional mistake.
You don’t need to have insurance in place when you apply. If your application moves on to a site assessment, you must have insurance documents available to show a certification officer.
The amount of cover you need depends on the type of appointment you have:
- Warrant of fitness (WoF) IOs must make sure their insurance allows for enough cover for the inspection activities.
- Certificate of fitness (CoF) IOs must have at least 1 million dollars of cover for each policy.
We recommend you speak to an insurance expert about your business to work out the level of cover you need.
Legal entity (business structures)
We appoint legal entities (such as companies, partnerships, or sole traders) as IOs.
If we appoint you and you change your legal entity, you can’t transfer the appointment to the new entity, even if it’s just your business structure that changes.
For example, if you’re appointed as a sole trader and change your business structure to a company in the future, you can’t keep using your appointment as a sole trader. You’ll need to apply for a new appointment as a company.
It’s important to think about the best business structure for your IO before you apply, so you can future-proof your appointment.
Business structure overview (business.govt.nz)
CoF A application requirements
To apply for CoF A you must already be appointed as a WoF or CoF B IO.
When we assess a CoF A application we consider your organisation’s review history over a number of reviews. We want to appoint organisations that have a consistently high level of performance as an IO over a good amount of time.
If you’re not already a WoF or CoF B IO, you won’t have a review history for us to consider yet.
Notice of appointment and conditions of appointment
Notice of appointment
A Notice of appointment explains your roles and responsibilities if we appoint you as an IO. It describes what you can expect of us and what we expect of you.
Before you apply:
- read the Notice of appointment for IOs
- make sure you understand what you’ll be responsible for.
You’ll need to discuss the notice of appointment with a certification officer during a site assessment.
Length of appointment
All new IOs are appointed for 5 years (since January 2021). Your appointment term will be in your Notice of appointment.
Your appointment remains current until:
- the end of that 5 year term
- your appointment is suspended
- your appointment is revoked
- the legal entity we’ve appointed doesn’t exist anymore (for example, if you were appointed as a company and your company is removed from the companies office register).
You can also surrender your appointment if you don’t want to be an IO anymore or if you want to close one of your sites.
Surrendering all or part of your appointment
Conditions of appointment
We might add extra conditions to your Notice of appointment. This could include things like:
- keeping a specific VI (or someone with similar experience) employed at your site
- continuing to be a member of an industry group
- continuing to work with a consultant or mentor
- telling us about any criminal convictions you receive.
We add extra conditions to help lower any risk – we’ll tell you about them before we appoint you.
Assessing your application
Fit and proper person check
We may complete fit and proper person checks on:
- the IO representative (contact person) for your application
- key people in your legal entity
- Company: all directors
- Partnership: all partners
- Sole trader: you, as a sole trader.
We also reserve the right to complete fit and proper person checks on other people in your business that have control of making decisions that could influence how inspection activities are carried out.
We’ll let you know who we need to complete fit and proper person checks for.
We’ll complete a fit and proper person check for you with your application. This may include:
- Ministry of Justice criminal record check
- traffic offence history (all transport related offences, for example speed offences, speed camera offences, no evidence of inspection (WoF or CoF), failure to stop at a stop sign, used a mobile phone while driving etc)
- Ministry of Justice fine summary
- internal debt check (road user charges, tolling debt, outstanding vehicle licensing fees etc).
Fit and proper person guidelines
New IO applications
For each person we complete a fit and proper person check on, you need to provide:
- a completed Fit and proper person disclosure and consent (FP01) form
- their criminal record check from the Ministry of Justice (if they’re not a current IO, VI, or specialist certifier).
Please be aware that we reserve the right to complete fit and proper person checks on other people in your business that have control of making decisions that could influence how inspection activities are carried out. We’ll let you know if we need to complete fit and proper person checks for other people in your business.
Get your criminal record check from the Ministry of Justice
Other application types
You don’t need to complete a fit and proper person form or send us your criminal record check from the Ministry of Justice with your application if you’re applying to:
- add a site to your existing appointment
- relocate your site
- add an inspection group or category to your existing appointment.
Please be aware that we reserve the right to ask for a fit and proper person form and an MOJ criminal record when assessing any application.
VIs named in your application
VIs are an important part of an IO. The inspections they complete make sure safe vehicles are on our roads.
When we assess your VIs, we may consider:
- how long they’ve been a VI
- their performance at announced and unannounced reviews
- any concerning history as a VI or IO, including:
- complaints
- suspensions
- investigations
- revocations.
We’ll assess their history over the last 5 years. If we find risks, we’ll consider their whole history and anything else we think is relevant.
Requirements for VIs in a new site IO application
For applications received for new site appointments, the VI named must:
- have at least 12 months of appointment as a VI, and
- have completed at least 25 inspections per year, and
- have received a compliant outcome from their most recent review.
If you don’t have a VI yet
We must assess your VIs as part of your application. However, we understand there may be times when you want to find out if you meet other requirements first (like our fit and proper person checks), before you get VIs.
If you don’t have a VI when you apply we’ll assess as much of your application as we can and will let you know if you meet our requirements.
If you meet our requirements you must:
- employ a VI within 8 weeks of us partially assessing your application
- add them to your application by emailing us their details.
If you don’t employ a VI within that time we’ll return your application to you as incomplete.
What to do if your VI needs to apply for their VI appointment at the same time as your IO appointment
Send us your VI and IO applications together.
We’ll assess them at the same time. If they both meet our requirements, we’ll complete the IO site assessment and VI theory and practical tests at the same time.
Your performance as an IO
If you’re already appointed as an IO, or if you have been appointed before, we may consider your organisation’s:
- performance at announced and unannounced reviews
- complaints
- suspensions
- investigations
- revocations.
This includes situations where you are, or have been, appointed under a different legal entity.
We’ll assess your organisation’s history over the last 5 years. If we find risks, we’ll consider your whole history and anything else we think is relevant.
Your external support
If you have, or will have, external support at your organisation, let us know. External support includes (but isn’t limited to):
- being a member of an industry group
- being a Motor Trade Association (MTA) member
- using MTA courses
- having an ongoing contract with a consultant (often known as WoF consultants)
- completing one-off courses, training, or assessments with a consultant or other training provider
- having a formal or informal mentoring arrangement with someone in the inspection industry or with experience in the inspection industry.
You don’t need to have external support for us to appoint you as an IO. However, having support, particularly in the early stages of your appointment, could help you to:
- understand our requirements
- make sure you’re meeting standards
- identify areas for improvement before they become bigger issues.
There may be situations where we think having external support is an important part of your application. If so, we might put a condition on your appointment to keep that support for a certain amount of time.
Your quality management system (QMS)
A QMS is a tool that measures the activities of your IO and VIs. It also makes sure you have appropriate processes in place to make sure all of your inspection work complies with our requirements.
You must use a QMS that meets our requirements. This could be:
- our model QMS
- a QMS that meets the international standard ISO17020
- another QMS that meets our requirements.
When you apply you need to tell us which QMS you’ll use.
If your application moves on to a site assessment, you’ll need to:
- talk to a certification officer about your QMS
- show your understanding of the system
- tell us how you’ll use it at your site
- show us the records you’ve already completed (for example, staff, equipment calibration, conflict of interest and delegation records).
If we appoint you as an IO, we’ll assess your QMS at regular performance reviews.
More information on our QMS requirements
Conflicts of interest and financial interest
When you apply you need to tell us if you have, or may have, conflicts of interest or financial interest.
If you move on to a site assessment, you’ll need to:
- talk to a certification officer about conflicts of interest and financial interest
- show us that you understand how to identify them
- tell us how your site will manage conflicts of interest and financial interest
- show us your completed conflict of interest register (part of your QMS).
If we appoint you as an IO we’ll review your conflict of interest register and plan at regular performance reviews.
Site assessments
If we think your application meets our requirements, the next step is for a certification officer to visit your site. We’ll call you to arrange a date and time for the visit.
During the visit, the certification officer will:
- assess your understanding of our QMS requirements (including your understanding of conflicts of interest)
- make sure your QMS is in place, and you’ve completed the relevant records
- talk to you about an IO’s Notice of appointment
- make sure your site and equipment meets our requirements
- check your insurance is in place (or will be by the date you’re appointed).
The certification officer will send your site assessment result to our Vehicle Inspections team. They’ll consider the result along with the rest of your application (for example, fit and proper person checks and VI checks).
We may assess your VIs as well
We may need to assess the performance of your VIs at the site assessment. For example, they might be due for a regular performance review. Or, we might need more information about their current performance level so we can make a decision on your application.
If we need your VIs to be on site with you at the site assessment, we’ll let you know.
Preparing for a site assessment
Before we visit, you must:
- make sure your site (building and grounds) meets our requirements
- have all of your equipment on-site*
- have all of your equipment calibrated.
*The only exception to this is the label printer for CoF A applications. We give our printer suppliers the authority to sell you a label printer if all other parts of your application are successful and we’re going to appoint you as an IO. This means you won’t be able to have a label printer on-site for the site assessment.
If your site and equipment don’t meet our requirements your application may be declined.
Inspection premises and equipment requirements
Applying before your site is ready
Ideally you’ll send us your application once your site is ready.
However, we understand there may be times when you want to:
- find out if you meet other requirements first (like our fit and proper person checks), or
- apply while your site is being built or you’re having equipment installed to reduce any down-time for your business.
If you apply before your site is ready we’ll assess as much of your application as we can and will let you know if you meet our requirements.
If you meet our requirements you must get your site ready:
- by the date indicated on your application form, or
- within 1 month of us partially assessing your application.
If you don’t get your site ready within that time we’ll return your application to you as incomplete.
If there are delays with building or site equipment please discuss this with us as soon as possible.
If you're appointed as an IO
Order stationery through Blue Star
IOs order inspection stationery like WoF/CoF labels and checksheets through Blue Star. Blue Star will email you to let you know what you need to do to finalise your account, after we’ve set it up.
You can pay by direct debit, direct credit, or credit card (including debit VISA and Mastercard). Check with your bank for any extra fees they may charge for any of these payment methods.
Direct debit
You can pre-authorise your bank to transfer money to Blue Star each time you buy, for the amount you spend at the time. It’s a simple way to pay and you don't need to share financial information with your staff.
There’s no surcharge.
To set up a direct debit with Blue Star:
- complete Blue Star’s Direct debit authority form
- get proof of your bank account number (for example, deposit slip or a screenshot showing your bank details)
- email nzta.inspections@bluestargroup.co.nz and attach scans of your form and proof.
Please allow 10 working days for setting up the direct debit. If you need to order stationery sooner, you may need to use one of the other payment options first.
Important: you won’t be able to set up a direct debit with Blue Star until we’ve authorised them to set up an account for you.
Blue Star’s direct debit authority form
Direct credit (POLi)
You transfer money from your bank account to Blue Star through a secure third-party app called POLi, at the time you buy.
There’s a 1% surcharge capped at $3.00 plus GST.
Credit card
You pay for your orders with a credit card, at the time you buy. Blue Star accepts Visa, Visa Debit, Mastercard, Mastercard Debit and American Express.
There’s a surcharge (Visa/Mastercard: 2.75%, American Express 3.25%).
IT system requirements
To connect to our computer systems, you must operate one of these systems:
- Windows 8.1
- Windows 10
- Windows 11.
You must also use one of these approved browsers:
- Edge v96.0.1054.x or greater
- Chrome v96.0.4664.x or greater
- Firefox 91.0.x or greater.
Printers for CoF IOs
Printers for CoF B IOs
CoF B IOs will need:
- an A4 printer, or
- a continuous form dot matrix printer for pre-printing checksheets from LANDATA. This printer needs to be able to print on a form that’s 240mm wide and 297mm deep, and be able to print 70 lines per page. You can buy these printers from most stationery suppliers.
It’s your responsibility to make sure your printer will work with our systems. Please work with your printer provider to correctly install and set up the printer.
Certificate of loading label printer
You may need a label printer to re-print Certificate of loading labels.
If your application is successful we’ll let our printer suppliers know you’re authorised to buy one. You can negotiate the best deal directly with the suppliers.
A label printer costs approximately $2000.
Use Vehicle Inspection and Certification (VIC) to enter WoF inspections
Vehicle Inspection and Certification (VIC) is the system you’ll use to enter WoF inspection results. The only people who are allowed to access VIC are the staff you’ve approved to use it, who are trained to use it.
You must enter all inspection results at the time you complete the inspection and before the vehicle leaves your site.
If your application is successful we’ll:
- set up your organisation and your assigned administrator in VIC
- email your administrator an invitation with a link and invitation code to get set up in VIC.
The administrator is responsible for adding other VIC users for your IO site. Each VIC user will need their own login.
Guide: VIC - Logging in and navigating
Guide: VIC - Setting up and managing users for administrators
Guide: VIC - View vehicle information
Guide: VIC - Record the WoF inspection outcome
Guide: VIC - Record PDI completed
Use LANDATA to enter CoF inspections
LANDATA is the computer system that lets you access the Motor Vehicle Register. The only people who are allowed to access LANDATA are the staff you’ve delegated to use it, who are trained to use it.
Staff must enter all inspection results at the time they complete the inspection and before the vehicle leaves your site.
If your application is successful we’ll:
- ask you to complete a User access form for each person trained and delegated to use LANDATA
- create a unique username and password for each person
- set up your organisation with login details to a VPN that can access LANDATA
- send you instructions to access the VPN and LANDATA.
Keep our systems secure
You must not share login details for the VPN with anyone who isn’t delegated and trained to use the VPN.
If you use LANDATA, we’ll give you a personal username and password. You must not share this with anyone else.
If you use Vehicle Inspection and Certification (VIC), you’ll set up your own personal username and password. You must not share this with anyone else.
If any unauthorised person accesses our system, this could impact your appointment as an IO.
If you think someone else has your login details:
- change your password as quickly as possible
- email vehicleinspections@nzta.govt.nz to let us know what’s happened.
Keep our information confidential
You must make sure you keep the information in our system confidential.
This means you must treat any information held on, or provided to you by the system, as confidential information. You may only use it for inspection and certification activities.
For example:
- you can access VIC or LANDATA to enter inspection results for a vehicle you’ve just inspected
- you can’t access either system to look up a car you or your friend wants to buy.
Use the VI code of conduct
The VI code of conduct sets out the minimum ethical and behavioural standards we expect of all VIs.
You must make sure all of your VIs that their VIs understand and abide by this code of conduct.
NZ Transport Agency vehicle inspector code of conduct
Performance monitoring and review
We’ll review you and your VIs regularly.
Reviews may be announced (we’ll tell you we’re coming) or unannounced (we’ll just show up).
The performance monitoring and review process:
- targets our resources at IOs and VIs that are identified as higher risk
- encompasses quality management, inspection processes and technical requirements
- ensures regular assessments of all IOs and VIs
- involves more targeted output inspections of vehicles by certification officers.
Surrendering all or part of your appointment
If you don’t want to be an IO anymore, or if you want to close one of your sites, you need to surrender all or part of your appointment.
To surrender all or part of your appointment:
- complete a Surrender an IO, VI, or specialist certifier appointment (VOLSUR) form
- email it to us at vehicleinspections@nzta.govt.nz
We’ll contact you in writing once we’ve updated our records.
Surrender an IO, VI, or specialist certifier appointment (VOLSUR)
If your application isn't successful
We’ll propose to decline your application
If your application doesn’t meet our requirements, we’ll send you a notice proposing to decline your application. In that notice, we’ll let you know our concerns and what we’ve considered when assessing your application.
This step isn’t a final decision to decline your application. You’ll have the opportunity to make submissions (give more information) to us, which we’ll consider before we make a final decision.
We may still decline your application
If you don’t make any submissions to us, or the submissions you do make still don’t meet our requirements, we may send you a final decision declining your application.
If that happens, you have the right to appeal our decision to a district court under section 106 of the Land Transport Act 1998. Section 111 of the act and part 20, subpart 2 of the District Court Rules 2014 explain how to appeal.