The dream of living on the road has ended before it’s begun for some Kiwi families who’ve been unable to get mandatory seatbelts installed in their motorhomes.
Fair Go has spoken with multiple bus owners who’ve embarked on a journey to convert their bus into a motorhome, only to run into problems with the installation, certification and cost of seatbelts.
The Bassicks told Fair Go they sold their property and left full-time jobs in order to embrace a new way of life.
“You're up at 7am, get back home at 7.30pm again that night and there’s just no time for you and the kids,” Damian Bassick explained.
“I thought, 'Ah well, let's get rid of everything, buy a bus and get on the road',” Letitia Bassick added.
But the Bassicks, like others Fair Go has spoken to, have struggled to find someone to install seatbelts in the bus and get them certified by a heavy vehicle engineer.
Since 2003, motorhomes or vehicles converted into motorhomes must be fitted with seatbelts and the total number of seatbelts must match the number of berths.
There are currently 125 heavy vehicle specialists in New Zealand, but just 69 are qualified to certify seatbelts.
The Bassicks say they've found no one who is prepared to take the work on.
“The second you mention seatbelts they can't get off the phone fast enough,” Letitia said.
The Turner family in Hawke’s Bay ran into similar difficulties, but were able to eventually get seatbelts installed and certified in Rotorua after several months.
Lee Turner says all up, the seatbelts cost about $15,000.
“The bus itself we paid $11,000 for so yes, the seatbelts cost more than the actual bus,” she said.
Fair Go approached a number of seatbelt workshops across the country who told the programme they’d stopped doing motorhome work because certifiers weren't available to sign off on it.
Heavy vehicle engineers not only look at motorhomes, they certify commercial vehicles.
Heavy Vehicle Engineers Group executive officer Kelvin Barclay says the increase in the number of commercial vehicles has meant “more and more certificates required”, so they don't have time to look at motorhomes.
“The commercial vehicles need to be done. Basically, we keep the country moving, because if they couldn't get the vehicles to comply then they'd be off the road, so you could almost grind the country to a halt,” he said.
Adding to the workload is that the industry has been under a review after compliance problems. A spokesperson for Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency told Fair Go it's been a "difficult journey for all involved" but necessary to ensure the safety of heavy vehicles on our roads.
They say they’re working closely with the industry to find solutions, and changes are on the way as to who can certify seatbelts in the future.
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