The transport agency is signing up a private company to operate new mobile cameras. File photo. Photo: RNZ/Peter de Graaf
A private operator of new mobile speed and safety cameras is expected to ramp up the number of hours they are used by a quarter.
Police currently run the cameras, but logged only 63,000 hours in the last financial year, well under the 80,000-hour target.
NZTA Waka Kotahi has begun taking over the cameras, and its annual report shows it wants to hit that 80,000 mark.
The agency is signing up a private company to operate them, although it will handle the assessing and issuing of infringements.
Reports show police have had trouble retaining mobile operators for a couple of years amid the changes.
Delays rolling out the cameras played a big part in Road to Zero being underspent by $233m - or nine percent - at the end of the 2021-24 National Land Transport Programme, NZTA Waka Kotahi's annual report said.
Its overall mobile and fixed camera rollout has been cut from 800 cameras down to 250 to match the government's transport priorities, and the spend over two decades has been reduced from $2.5 billion to $1.7 billion.
A separate camera deal has also made it easier for NZTA to electronically share CCTV footage with police, without officers having to visit a Transport Operations Centre in person like before.
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