Steph Kennard: Bonnet Chief Executive on 50% of Kiwi's having an out of date WOF or registration

An estimate from vehicle admin app Bonnet puts half of New Zealanders behind on their WOF or registration.

Bonnet CEO Steph Kennard told Heather du Plessis-Allan the cost of living crisis is likely a contributing factor, alongside forgetfulness.

Further concerns of financial pressure and forgetfulness are added when considering the incoming implementation of road user charges.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now here's a question for you. Do you know if
your car regio or WAFT is up to date? Chances
are the answer is no, you haven't gotten You've got
no idea because according to vehicle admin company Bonnet, nearly
half the cars on Keywi roads are not registered and
don't have a valid WAFT, and one in five are
also behind on paying for their rucks. The CEO of Bonnet,
Steve Kennard, is with us now or Steph rather Kennard

(00:20):
is with us. He Steph, Hi, thanks for having me.
Sorry about miss gender right front. Get off on a
good start there now. Listen, this is an estimate for
you from you guys. How have you figured this out?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
So we've basically taken our active users and we've seen
how how many basically don't get the WAFT and the
regi are done on time, and how many are currently
overdue on their road. You's a charge, So, I mean,
it's pretty scary considering considering that Bonnet is the utility
to keep up to date with these things. So it
is a bit more worrying how many kind of are
out there kind of missing that threeshold of getting a

(00:54):
warrant in that and that how.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Much are we missing it by? You know, I mean
is it like years or is a couple of weeks
or what.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
A couple of weeks? I actually was trying to dig
up that data just before the call, but I didn't
get they're done on time, but about four or so weeks,
I would say, So it's missing the threshold. People just
aren't remembering and then when they're looking at it, they're like,
oh damn, and then kind of getting it done.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Why do we do that?

Speaker 2 (01:19):
People are just either not thinking about it. I mean,
there's a lot of things that people are thinking about
at the moment with the cost of living crisis. But
also when you do remember, you get you need a
warrn a fitness It's not just you know, the sixty
five dollars, it's like the treat on the tires enough,
you know what else are they going to cost me?
So it's a bit scary. And the road user charges themselves.

(01:40):
It's it can add up quite fast for people. So yeah,
it's not surprising merely, but it is a bit scary
considering the whole of New Zealand is about to have
to pay road user charges.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah, well this is the thing, right, But the road
user charges are going to be electronic ount they so
that'll be much easier to keep on top of wanted.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Well, I mean, yeah, the government it's got to rfy
out at the moment to figure out, you know, who's
going to come to the party and provide a sudden
forget service, which is what your bonnets actually launching shortly.
But at the end of the day, there isn't kind
of a certified sudden forget model the n ZTA is
going to do. You'll still have to manually put in
what you're a dometer reading is and the whole thing
is quite fragmented, like as of today, it's just it

(02:21):
is just remember what your license is? Yeah, it is,
it really is.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah. Now you guys are tendering for this RUX thing,
are you.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, So yeah, there's a bunch. I mean, I think
there's a there's a good number of people that are
wanting to kind of provide a solution for this. There's
a huge amount of cars going to need this, and
it's basically a race for finish in the next thirteen
months to provide a solution that, you know, is the
sudden forget. People's choice in terms of privacy friendly. You know,

(02:53):
there's going to be three options for people to kind
of choose. It's going to be manually putting in your
a dometer into an app like Bonnet, or going to
be using a device. And that device is going to
be an interesting one in itself because you know, what
is the device going to look like? How the company
that wins the race is going to be able to
do it in a privacy free, privacy first way of

(03:13):
not recording GPS in my opinion, because no one wants that.
And then the last way is you know, going old
school and going onto the NZTA website and putting in
your doometer, remembering.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Yes, so do you think like so it might actually
record where you've been in the past.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
No, so, well, for example, the device that we've been
looking at, and this is obviously just just us. The goal,
the golden like the golden goose, to get this done
with the with the public support is going to be
doing like doing a device that doesn't record GPS. So
like the easiest way, you know, fleets at the moment
are using distance recorders basically using the GPS said like

(03:50):
to navigate where that vehicle is. But a device that
is privacy first, for consumers should record the distance on
the device, and they're only ping the answer, so like
they're a dometer reading. So it's basically like you need
to build that, but then you also need to prove
to the public that that's actually what you're doing. And
also the data has got data sovereignty because it's actually

(04:14):
quite surprising. There are lots of devices that you buy
off you know, Ali Barbara, all the data goes back
to China. So it's about building the device that's probably affordable,
you know underneath thirty forty dollars, doesn't need a battery,
can be plugged in easily, and doesn't record GPS. So
there is a lot of companies at the moment trying
to figure out what is the solution for this, And
I think that, yeah, I think that it'll be interesting

(04:38):
to see what the consumers how, you know, what's going
to be the balance of like, oh I just don't
want to do it, you know, just just put the
device in, or you know, I don't want anyone to
potentially even put a device in their car if I
don't know where it comes from.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
Well, the conspiracy theories will the conspiracy theorists will definitely
come to the party with that and not disappoint Thank you, Steff,
appreciate It's Steph Kenner, chief executive officer at Bonnet. For
more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to News
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