If your up for Rego in NSW - Read this.

[Baz]

Thanks Fellas,

I spoke to my Engineer yesterday concerning my car and others. He informed me that his normal everyday run of the mill Clubmans which makes up a large percentage of his clientele and who previously, went through inspections with ease are now being rejected by the RTA with countless ADR deficiences. He correctly suspects that the RTA are attempting to discredit the Engineer rather than the customer. We are just the meat in the sandwich in what appears to be a power struggle to remove the Engineer from the Inspection loop. Another ICV enthusiast informed me that one of his clients recently had had his Cobra rejected on about 20 issues also, all along similar lines to mine and he used a different engineer to me.

Baz

[Baz]

I have it from a fairly reliable source that the NSW process for initial registration on ICV's is about to experience a total overhaul.

It would appear that the current list of RTA approved Engineers will be cancelled and a new list formulated. If you are an Engineer and wish to be included on the new list, you apply, your application is assessed and if your successful, you'r placed on the new list.

The big difference is that those selected Engineers that appear on the new list will be totally responsible for the entire ICV Inpsection process and when they complete the final Engineering Certification for an ICV, the VIN No. can be obtained and the car registered.

The entire ball game will be left in the hands of the Approved Engineers and they will be closely scrutinised by the RTA.

The system sounds far better than the one we have at the moment which suffers from a serious lack of human resources as far as the RTA is concerned. At the moment, the work load which the RTA Inspectors have on their plate is far outweighed by the number of Inspectors available to do the job. I know, because I am right in the middle of that situation.

I'm not sure when the new system starts, but the sooner the better.


Baz.

[Rob. Smith]

Originally Posted by Baz

I have it from a fairly reliable source that the NSW process for initial registration on ICV's is about to experience a total overhaul.

It would appear that the current list of RTA approved Engineers will be cancelled and a new list formulated. If you are an Engineer and wish to be included on the new list, you apply, your application is assessed and if your successful, you'r placed on the new list.

The big difference is that those selected Engineers that appear on the new list will be totally responsible for the entire ICV Inpsection process and when they complete the final Engineering Certification for an ICV, the VIN No. can be obtained and the car registered.

The entire ball game will be left in the hands of the Approved Engineers and they will be closely scrutinised by the RTA.

The system sounds far better than the one we have at the moment which suffers from a serious lack of human resources as far as the RTA is concerned. At the moment, the work load which the RTA Inspectors have on their plate is far outweighed by the number of Inspectors available to do the job. I know, because I am right in the middle of that situation.

I'm not sure when the new system starts, but the sooner the better.


Baz.

This is what my engineer told me about 10 years ago. The RTA are distancing themselves from litigation....It all falls onto the engineer. Thus the engineer has to take out a multi million dollar insurance policy to protect himself. This will then cost the engineer $5000.00 plus each year to insure himself. Totally unaffordable. My engineer was trying to organize some sort of 'group' insurance amongst several engineers so as to keep costs down and prevent engineers from leaving that branch of the profession. As for the RTA inspectors being overloaded. It is due to the fact that the RTA itself cut the inspector numbers enormously back in 2000 (that wonderful downsizing era) and made petrol station mechanics do the blue slip and defect inspection work. I think the new system might become very strict and very expensive. I truly hope I'm wrong.