Dangerous tourist drivers whose rental vehicle contracts have been cancelled will be blacklisted in a Queenstown trial to prevent them from getting back behind the wheel.
Representatives from rental vehicle and tourism industry associations plan to set up a ''shared information network'' to alert companies about problem drivers.
A meeting will be held in Queenstown next month to look at how the network could work, potentially using email and telephones.
The regional blacklist would prevent the highest-risk drivers hiring another vehicle, Rental Vehicle Association (RVA) chairman Barry Kidd said yesterday.
''We're trying to close the loop.
''What we're thinking is those people are probably in the country for a relatively short period of time.
''The immediate risk is ... they'll pick up a rental vehicle from somewhere else.''
Shared information would likely include the driver's name, nationality and driver licence details, Mr Kidd said.
In August, the Otago Daily Times reported the RVA was investigating establishing the blacklist.
At present, tourist drivers deemed unsafe - but who do not meet the criteria required to be charged, enabling police to forbid them to drive - can have their contracts with rental companies cancelled.
But there is nothing preventing them from hiring a vehicle from another company.
Concerns that sharing information could breach the Privacy Act appeared to be unfounded, Mr Kidd said.
The RVA had reviewed its contracts and while, on balance, no changes were required, changes had been made to make it ''explicit'' that information would be provided to other companies.
Advice had also been provided to other companies who used their own contracts.
Mr Kidd said before the trial began, all rental companies in the resort would be engaged over the next three to six months.
Depending on the results, it may be rolled out nationally, or remain only in Queenstown.
''We want to involve all of them [rental car companies].
''We can't make people get involved, but we're hoping [with] a combination of encouragement, coercion and pressure from the local community ... they'll want to be involved.
''It really requires the community to get behind it and the operators to buy into the system which will help make the local community safer.''
There was no central reporting of the number of contracts that had been torn up, but anecdotally it happened about twice a week and the majority of the issues appeared to be in Queenstown.
In the latest incident, which almost resulted in a head-on collision, a driver from Australia had his rental contract torn up on Sunday after a member of the public stopped him on the Lindis Pass and took the vehicle's keys.
The driver was charged with dangerous driving and was summonsed to appear in the Alexandra District Court on Wednesday.
A website designed to tell visitors how to drive safely in New Zealand was launched yesterday.
DriveSafe.org.nz, translated into Mandarin and German, was developed by the Tourism Industry Association with support from other industry groups.
Translations into more languages are planned.
The website is one of the initiatives under the visiting drivers signature project, part of the Government's Safer Journeys Action Plan.
TIA chief executive Chris Roberts said it provided basic information about road rules and etiquette, along with links to more detail about everything overseas drivers unfamiliar with New Zealand roads needed to know.
