28 August 2021

On Friday, the Government announced that all New Zealand would remain in Alert Level 4 until 11.59pm on Tuesday, 31 August. Then all of the country EXCEPT AUCKLAND AND NORTHLAND, will go into Alert Level 3, which will be reviewed on Monday, 6 September.

The Prime Minister advised that Auckland, and possibly Northland, should be prepared to be in Alert Level 4 until Tuesday, 14 September, a further full two weeks.

This means transport operators doing business between Level 3 and Level 4 will need documents to ensure both the passage of trucks and truck drivers, and of their essential workers who may live either side of the road blocks that will be set up between Level 3 in the Waikato and south, and Level 4 in Auckland and North.

You will already have given your staff letters, as we previously suggested. We are awaiting advice if those letters will be accepted for passage until people can register with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) Business Travel Register, as many will have done in previous lockdowns.

The registration process will open on Sunday at 12 noon on MBIE’s website here.

This is what we know about the process of registering via the Business Travel
Register.

What details do you need to register?

Business owners (so either the freight company, or the driver if they operate as an independent business) will need to:

• Register for business connect if you haven’t already done so (this uses the unverified RealMe system, so is no more complex than setting up any other online account)
• Provide business details – either the registered business name or New Zealand Business Number (NZBN)
• Provide name and address for each driver who needs to travel across an alert level boundary

What will you receive?

The business owner receives a one-page pdf for each driver they have registered, which you can then email or print off for each driver. The driver just needs to show the pdf, either in hard copy, or on their phone, if required at the border.

When can you register?

MBIE advises the system will open for registrations on Sunday, from 12pm. MBIE advises the system can handle tens of thousands of concurrent users, so is more than up to expected volumes. Freight will be auto approved, so companies will get their pdfs within minutes of hitting submit.

If you don’t already have a RealMe, don’t worry

Given the challenges of RealMe, the Business Travel Register actually uses the non-verified version of RealMe. This means that if a business has a RealMe login, it can use this. But if it does not, the business can create a non-verified account (all the business needs is a user name and a password to create an account). The business cannot use this non-verified account for anything sensitive or personal, but is fine for this purpose.

Boundary road blocks

We will advise the following regarding road blocks on the southern borders of Auckland – locations and map below.

Southern Boundary
• SH1 (Northbound) intersection with Oram Road
• SH1 (Southbound) Mercer off-ramp
• SH2 Mangatawhiri, (Eastbound) off-ramp
• SH2 Mangatawhiri, (Westbound) Koheroa Rd off-ramp
• Highway 22 / Pukekawa Churchill Road intersection
• East Coast Road, Waharau

More information
The MBIE business travel webpage here.