About 160 Auckland cab drivers grounded by the lack of new security cameras have been allowed back on the streets temporarily, after the suspected disappearance of their supplier.
Transport Agency senior official John Doesburg said last night that he had granted the Discount Cabs drivers a seven-day reprieve on thebasis that the would-be supplier had "done a bunk". But he said 350 other Auckland cabbies, among 550 nationally, remained banned for failing to meet deadlines for installing the cameras.
The Christchurch-based supplier is on a Transport Agency list of providers of approved in-cab camera systems.
Discount Cabs owner Alan Webster said he paid $15,000 to the supplier at the end of June as a deposit for 50 cameras. He was distraught yesterday morning, with only 80 of his 240-strong fleet equipped with cameras from other sources, and only 12 of those on the road.
"We've got men off work who have built up a business and it's quite against human nature that they are not allowed to go to work because of a camera which I, through a series of events, have not been able to supply," he said.
Mr Doesburg, who is supervising the introduction of cameras to up to 6700 taxis around the country following the murders of two drivers and assaults on many others, said his organisation had been unable to contact the Christchurch supplier.
He expected to meet a lawyer today to discuss a possible case for the Commerce Commission, but he needed to confirm the man had disappeared before removing him from the list of approved suppliers.
Whangarei taxi company owner Robert Gregory, who was earlier granted a seven-day reprieve until Monday, said he had also been left in the lurch by the supplier.
He had eventually received cameras for his 26 cabs, but not mandatory panic buttons.
Mr Doesburg said Discount Cabs could not expect any more exemptions because he believed Mr Webster had left it too late to meet the original deadline of August 1 to ensure all his cabs complied with the law.
"Because he has gone very late, he is on his own."
A relieved Mr Webster accepted last night that he had "misjudged" the time needed to ensure an adequate supply.
