A new five-star ratings system that might influence insurance premiums and whether bus and freight operators get school or government contracts could be rolled out to taxi and shuttle companies.
The New Zealand Transport Agency's operator rating system will rate operators based on the number and severity of faults found during vehicle inspections and on any offences involving their vehicles.
It applies to trucking companies, tow-truck companies and bus companies.
The first formal ratings will be released late in 2012 but officials have already started preparing indicative ratings to give to operators by the middle of next year.
NZTA national commercial transport manager John Doesburg said the system would encourage operators to improve their safety and compliance records and help agencies, including the police, target their resources.
Safety should improve and consistently poor operators should be encouraged to either "up their game" or leave their industry.
A good rating might also help companies win the likes of government or school transport contracts over those with poorer ratings.
The Insurance Council was interested in the system and there was anecdotal evidence from some transport operators that finance companies and banks were looking at using it to help them assess the risk of their investments, Mr Doesburg said.
The system could be rolled out to taxis and shuttles after a couple of years, but first officials needed to work out how the ratings could be applied to co-operatives where individuals, rather than single companies, owned the vehicles in the fleet.
Its cost had yet to be determined but operators would have to pay for it through a levy on their transport service licence, Mr Doesburg confirmed.
Road Transport Association Otago-Southland president John Scally said the scheme was developed at the end of a decade in which the number of truck-at-fault crashes steadily declined. Even so, operators were optimistic it would reward compliant businesses and clean up non-compliant ones.
There was also no doubt it could have far-reaching consequences for businesses looking for finance or pitching for contracts. Good operators were unlikely to be penalised.
Bus and Coach Association of New Zealand chief executive Raewyn Bleakley said the system might become a useful marketing tool for those with good ratings. Passenger transport users needed to know they were travelling in safety.
Taxi Federation Otago representative Bill Collie said the system might benefit businesses in competitive industries if the cost of administering it was not excessive. Drivers would expect to be brought into a system that was fair and did not mean more red tape.
