Proposed legislation changes to tighten controls on freedom camping in New Zealand may be influencing rental campervan companies to review their fleet requirements to include more self-contained facilities.
The acting president of the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association, Bruce Stanger, said he had been encouraged by a recent surge from operators in the rental campervan industry for their vehicles to become certified as "self contained".
The Freedom Camping Bill passed its first reading debate in Parliament last week and has been referred to the local government and environment committee for consideration.
The Bill garnered 108 votes from MPs in support of tighter freedom camping controls. There were 10 votes against, notably from the Greens party and former conservation minister Chris Carter.
The resource management co-ordinator for the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association, James Imlach, said some large rental campervan companies had recently sought information about installing self-contained facilities in fleets.
The association was New Zealand's largest authority responsible for carrying out compliance inspections of campervans and motorhomes to ensure they complied with toilet and wastewater requirements, he said.
The association had about 300 inspectors throughout New Zealand responsible for issuing compliance certificates, and it also maintained a database of self-contained campervans and motorhomes, Mr Imlach said.
About 13,000 private and commercial vehicles were registered with the association as being "self contained".
"We've had a good pick-up by some commercial companies. The [industry] has been targeted by critics as being irresponsible," Mr Imlach said.
Rental company Kea Campervans had "led the way" and had its full fleet of vehicles certified, followed by United Campervans, which had 400 of its motorhomes certified and registered.
Rental operator Jucy was moving to have another 300 of its campervans registered as self contained, Mr Imlach said.
Jucy managing director Dan Alpe said environmental critics blamed tourists in rented vehicles for most freedom camping breaches.
Evidence gathered by operators and councils throughout New Zealand "clearly shows this isn't the case", Mr Alpe said.
About 50% of Jucy's fleet was already self contained and built to meet standard regulations for self-contained vehicles.
However, it had never been certified because there had not been a requirement to do so. The proposed legislation changes would be based on the compliance certification sticker, and policed by councils.
"We have had an initial inspection by the NZMCA and there are no issues with our vehicles being certified.
"The new laws will allow much clearer guidelines for freedom camping.
"We've been one of the drivers of that and are supportive of the changes," Mr Alpe said.
