I see safety procedures in New Zealand that appear to be expensive safety theatre to me where contractors are clearly incentivised to increase regulations because they get paid to enact the safety protocols.
Whenever I get a warrant-of-fitness (safety certification) for my car, it is clear that many of the rules are about safety, however it is also clear that there is no balance against the cost of those rules. I notice many cars in other countries that would not pass our safety standards, so you have to wonder exactly how unsafe other countries are (like Louisiana)?
Right. So the highest truck safety standards in the world are in Scandinavia, specifically Norway and Sweden, and many of them are adopted across the whole EU/EEA. These countries also seem to have some of the lowest truck fatality rates globally.
But these standards include things like AEBS and other automatic systems, speed limiters, tachographs etc., there is not much to get paid for for a contractor once the system is in the car and working properly, in fact every decision to enact new safety standards is fought hard at the EU level, so every additional system has to prove it's worth it.
I see safety procedures in New Zealand that appear to be expensive safety theatre to me where contractors are clearly incentivised to increase regulations because they get paid to enact the safety protocols.
Whenever I get a warrant-of-fitness (safety certification) for my car, it is clear that many of the rules are about safety, however it is also clear that there is no balance against the cost of those rules. I notice many cars in other countries that would not pass our safety standards, so you have to wonder exactly how unsafe other countries are (like Louisiana)?