Although there have been many changes that appeared to have erased that possibility, we have introduced some new features that will see an eventual return to free reports whenever we can do that, which are explained at the end of this email. Please read the following information carefully as all of these changes affect you, our valued customers.

Over the past five months the NZTA have introduced many new changes to the way in which Carjam can provide vehicle data. These changes have at times produced confusion and disruption to our Users, and we have decided to write this release to clarify exactly how these changes affect what you receive in your reports.

On January 1st 2011, the NZTA imposed a “User Pays” system to access vehicle data from the Motor Vehicle Register (MVR). This ‘public’ register is paid for through licensing, WOF and other vehicle fees. As you are aware this created significant outrage and together with our Users we created a petition which gathered more than 25,000 signatures and more than 5,000 personal emails to Minister Stephen Joyce. Although our voices were – quite incredibly – not heard, your support was overwhelming and humbling.

The result of these changes meant that Basic Facts data incurred a fee. To offset this, we decided that we would give our Users 3 free reports per month, for which we would absorb the cost as a sign of good faith and appreciation for all your support. We also introduced business accounts at a considerably reduced rate to ease the burden on our frequent users who were now faced with extra running costs for their businesses and were reliant on that information to survive.

On May 1st 2011, the NZTA introduced a new law, an amendment to the Land Transport Act, which would ‘significantly restrict access’ to ownership information. This new law means that full ownership information can only be given for the following purposes:

• enforcement of the law
• maintenance of the security of New Zealand
• collection of charges imposed or authorised by an enactment; and
• the administration and development of transport law and policy.

If you are registered under the Motor Vehicle Trade Register (MVTR) or the Financial Services Provider Register (FSPR), you can apply through us to have access to that information under terms and conditions set by the NZTA. You can now also find these in our Terms & Conditions.

What does this mean for the casual public user?

Under this new law, the public no longer has access to personal information. You can however use Carjam to “Confirm Ownership”. To do this, click on the link shown on our home page and you will be asked to enter: a) an owner’s surname, and b) their first name or date of birth, and you will receive confirmation of whether the ownership identity is correct. Company details will remain available.

On May 1st 2011, the NZTA also introduced additional fees for ”Outstanding Road User Charges and History (RUC)”, which has always been included in the Basic Facts reports.

All these changes forced us to rethink our pricing many times this year – as a result the following table outlines all the prices for report components from Carjam as of today:

This means our Registered Users will now be getting a comprehensive vehicle report for $9.97 – less than $10.00!

Despite having to charge for things that we don’t want to, our goal remains to provide the public with as much free vehicle data as we can.

Therefore, we have introduced some changes of our own!

Over many months, we have been ‘storing’ all the data from the reports our Users have queried. From now on, when you enter a number plate into our system, it will search this database, and if we have it – we will give it to you for free.

Many of our Users want static information – things that do not change over time, such as VIN and chassis numbers. These free reports will fulfil that function where we can provide them.

However, as this data is stored at the time it is queried, some ‘non-static’ data (such as license and WOF expiries) may be out of date. Please check the timestamp at the top of the report carefully to see how old it is. If you need an updated report, you can still purchase this or use a free lookup by clicking on ‘update’ in the report.

Our ‘Stolen Check’ information is automatically updated in both free and paid reports. There is no additional charge for this information.

Changes to our site: www.carjam.co.nz

You will have noticed changes to the way our site looks and operates. We understand that the integration of these new NZTA changes has at times produced frustration and we apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.

However we have taken your comments on board, and have now created what we hope is a more user friendly tool to access vehicle data.

Your feedback is important to us, so please continue to let us know how we can improve and serve you better.

Kind regards,

The Team at Carjam

In another market changing innovation from carjam.co.nz, the fastest growing automotive site in New Zealand, we are offering a special introductory promotional pricing of $6.85 for Account holders (excluding Dealers Guide module). This compares to our retail pricing of $12 per report and is the cheapest way to buy multiple complete reports for businesses available in the market place today.

Read more on our Accounts Program

Also in this site update:

• Increased promotional discounts for one off report purchases – $9.85 for registered users (excluding Dealers Guide module)
• Smart phone friendly layout for the mobile CarJammer on the move
• New CarJam page on Facebook where we’ll be making all our pre-release announcements first in the future and linked to our Twitter account if you prefer tweets. Become a fan today!
• Valuation report module turned on providing the most cost effective “Dealers Guide” vehicle valuation available to the public

Referrals are tracked from the originating site for the duration of the session in which they visit and all reports sold as a result of that visit result in a payment to the originating site.

Read more on our Affiliate Program.

In many cases the chassis number recorded differs due to spaces, dashes etc – this was one of the reasons VINs were introduced. When these older vehicles with incomplete or vague history are presented to an inspector for registration, the NZTA will provide a search service to look for the old registration plate and record. This is only provided for the inspectors and will typically only be done when you present the car for re-registration. As there are some potential security issues if we inspection, VINing and document checking are not all done together.

Our connection to the NZ Transport Agency was down for 14 hours. We are looking at ways to stop this from happening again.

Carjam is offering the same free and paid on line services returning information about vehicles which individuals may be planning to buy or sell as carfax.co.nz, just the name and look and feel of some important parts of the site have changed to reflect growth and a new phase in our development.

The free services include:

• odometer history from the NZ Transport Agency database including your average daily/monthly and yearly km’s.
• fuel efficiency where available
• actual historical fuel costs for this car based on historical fuel cost, efficiency and your average daily km’s. Very interesting reading to most users in this time of high fuel costs.

We now have over 100,000 unique visitors to the site per month and growing rapidly. We moved from 108th to 11th in the Hitwise online automotive industry report in May and we are expecting an even higher placing this quarter.

We are continuing to take a consumer advocacy position and are interested to see what we can do to partner with the automotive community in New Zealand to provide the best services and safest environment in which to buy and sell cars for consumers.

Let us know what you think!

CarJam is unable to make changes to a vehicle’s data. However the vehicle testing station that issued the WOF may be able to help you correct any problems with the odometer reading.

Monit to the rescue! A great little application that monitors server status and is able to restart misbehaving/overloaded services before they shut down the whole server.

We have since doubled the memory and cpu on the server and it is now coping with the increased load. You’ll be pleased to know that Anton is sleeping better now.

Geoff