Queenstown taxi and bus companies will have their vehicles inspected this week as part of a national safety and compliance operation taking place before the start of the Rugby World Cup.
The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) and the Police Commercial Vehicle Investigation Unit are involved in the joint operation to ensure passenger transport vehicles meet safety and compliance standards.
Otago-Southland principal transport officer Dermot Harris said inspectors had recently checked 278 taxis and buses in Dunedin and Invercargill.
Six taxis from Dunedin-based operators were found to have tyres which did not meet minimum safety tread standard and were ordered off the road until the tyres were replaced, he said.
There were 146 taxis checked in Dunedin, of which 23 needed "remedial" action to pass inspection, he said.
"Overall, the general standard of safety and mechanical compliance was high," Mr Harris said.
Queenstown passenger transport operators are scheduled to have their fleet vehicles inspected at Frankton this week, Mr Harris said.
The Dunedin and Invercargill taxi fleet inspections had highlighted some "non-mechanical" compliance issues about required signs and the display of up-to-date meter certificates in vehicles.
All taxis and buses that passed the inspections receive an orange sticker to be displayed on the left-hand side of the windscreen during the period of the RWC.
"Some taxi companies were clearly more compliant with all the required legislation than others. By the time the amnesty is complete later this month all taxi companies in the region will be at the same level of compliance," Mr Harris said.
Inspectors would carry out follow-up enforcement work to ensure that all companies maintain this high standard, he said.
There were no major mechanical issues with the more than 50 buses that were inspected.
The amnesty period allowed taxi drivers and fleet operators to identify areas where their standards could be improved, Mr Harris said.
It is understood some fleet vehicles from a Dunedin city taxi company have still to meet new compliance standards which require vehicles to be fitted with security camera and monitoring equipment.
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