Carjam no longer free

[Thani-B]

Noticed this today...


NZ Transport Agency is stopping the provision of the free information.

No more free CarJam reports from 1st January 2011.

We will prepare a full media release later this week.

Meanwhile, keep posting your thoughts on our blog, Facebook Page or email.

It sucks how they are making a useful tool harder (read 'costing us money' ) for us to use.

[steve_t]

Lame. I wonder who decided they could make more money from the site? :shit:

[grusomhat]

Lame. I wonder who decided they could make more money from the site? :shit:

Huh, this has nothing to do with carjam wanting to make more money. NZTA is the one removing the free access. Unless by site you mean, NZTA

[steve_t]

Huh, this has nothing to do with carjam wanting to make more money. NZTA is the one removing the free access. Unless by site you mean, NZTA

Oops. Thought Carjam was owned by NZTA but it appears it's not :shutup: Sorry, my bad :facepalm:

[Smiff-ta]

This is all to do with people opting out and people complaining that their information is easliy available.

It doesn't work both ways

[mikemike104]

Is disappointing for me (because I am selfish and do like free services) as I use it daily at work (along with Trade Me) to A. Check the value of cars being offered as security on loan applications and B. Make sure cars already used as security are still up to date.

I guess like everything - user pays. It will be interesting to see Carjams new pricing plan, but I'm thinking it will be more than what Motochek already charge as Turners will want their cut if they continue with the auction prices as part of the Carjam report.

[robo555]

This is all to do with people opting out and people complaining that their information is easliy available.

It doesn't work both ways

That's only for the name and address of the owner. When purchasing a vehicle, it's useful to know the odo reading, WOF history. Sometimes when going pass a more exotic vehicle, it's handy to be able to go back home and look up what model it is.

[SMOKEU]

This is all to do with people opting out and people complaining that their information is easliy available.

It doesn't work both ways

It's also good if there's a suspicious vehicle parked outside your habitat, or if someone is taking your bike out for a test ride to make sure the vehicle isn't flagged as stolen, and that the tags match up to the type of car.

[ukusa]

obviously a safety issue designed to lower the road toll, too many people carjamming the car in front on their iphone while driving.:facepalm:

seriously, there will be some sort of lame excuse, when the real reason will be that NZTA want to make more money from it by charging shitloads. In reality it will just die.

[The Everlasting]

Yeah that sucks,I used it heaps over the last year or so.

This will obviously also affect the checka site? http://www.checka.co.nz/

[breakaway]

This is all to do with people opting out and people complaining that their information is easliy available.

It doesn't work both ways

No, this is from the CarJam site:


Hi Gaz. NZTA is making CarJam pay 16c per query (what is free now) from 1st of January 2011. — Anton on November 10th, 2010 at 5:47 pm


This has NOTHING to do with the privacy laws OR carjam. The government being the money thieving cunts that they are are going to charge a (16 cent) fee for a previously free service. Get your facts right.

More information here: http://www.carjam.co.nz/cms/2010/04/09/nzta-announcement-about-removing-free-data-puts-carjam-under-threat/

[imdying]

I don't know what you are all whinging about. If want to use it, you can pay for it. There is no reason why it should be paid for by the tax payer. Servers, bandwidth, and application development, all need to be paid for. Your mums have probably never used it, they shouldn't have to pay for it.

[breakaway]

I don't know what you are all whinging about. If want to use it, you can pay for it. There is no reason why it should be paid for by the tax payer. Servers, bandwidth, and application development, all need to be paid for. Your mums have probably never used it, they shouldn't have to pay for it.

The 16c fee per trasnaction is just like the toll roads $2 fee for motorcycles. Most people think the fee is there to recoup costs of building the road, but in reality, it's just a way to do load balancing:


They are actually a part of a recognised government strategy of road pricing, which in turn is part of a strategy of Travel Demand Management. (Google it)

NZTA does NOT want to upgrade their infrastructure (currently, CarJam queries are raping the shit out of it), so they add this fee.

I would not be surprised if NZTA's IT infrastructure and systems are older than the dinosaurs and can't stand up to the load that carjam / checka etc putting on them.

[mikemike104]

I found out today, Motochek instead of charging $3.07 per vehicle check and more for an ownership history, from the first of Jan will lower their vehicle check and ownership history requests to $0.18 and $0.21 respectively ! :gob: cheap stuff !!

So I do look forward to finding out what CarJam intend to charge as in theory it has to be dearer than the above due to the Turners values (if they continue to offer them as part of the Carjam report).

Whichever way you look at it it's cheap I reckon and its infomation we must have so no matter the price the user will still happily pay it.

[Stormer]

Lame.
Typical... NZ middle class public getting ripped of yet again.
As pointed out before, it`s real handy in checking out any suspect vehicles hanging around.

[Gremlin]

NZTA does NOT want to upgrade their infrastructure (currently, CarJam queries are raping the shit out of it), so they add this fee.

I would not be surprised if NZTA's IT infrastructure and systems are older than the dinosaurs and can't stand up to the load that carjam / checka etc putting on them.
Well, from the other point of view, servers cost money in parts and maintenance, or buying new ones. If someone is using a large portion of it, that isn't government related, then technically, they should be paying for it. Server space and resources have to be paid for by someone...

[GZ250]

If anyone needs to look up a rego for details, flick me a PM and ill help with some of the info :yes:

[EJK]

If anyone needs to look up a rego for details, flick me a PM and ill help with some of the info :yes:

Post saved and remembered.

[cbfb]

Just got this in the email, apparently NZTA are trying to shut the free CarJam reports down. I've found these bloody useful so please sign the petition or email the Minister of Transport.

Just go to the CarJam homepage (http://www.carjam.co.nz/) for links etc.


NZTA Proposal means the end of FREE vehicle reports - act now!

Tuesday, November 16th, 2010

No more FREE information !?

As you have purchased a report from Carjam, you are probably aware that we provide lots of free data from the New Zealand Transport Agency ("NZTA") Motor Vehicle Register. Today the NZTA provide free access to this data allowing us to provide it to you as a free service.

This free service from Carjam has been incredibly popular - introducing all kinds of safeguards, security and efficiencies, not only during the sale and purchase of cars, but also allowing businesses to help you maintain and service your car.

The NZTA is stopping the provision of this free information effective Jan 1st 2011.

No more free reports will be available from that date if this goes ahead.

CarJam does not support this move which will hurt the New Zealand consumer and the automotive industry.

What can we do?

Ideally, please do both of the following:

Email the Minister of Transport using our simple email template from the front page of carjam.co.nz
Sign the Petition
Just a note that you’re receiving this email because you purchased a CarJam report and we thought you might be interested in this critical issue.

[Juzz976]

Do you have to make a donation to sign that petition?

[BMWST?]

Just got this in the email, apparently NZTA are trying to shut the free CarJam reports down. I've found these bloody useful so please sign the petition or email the Minister of Transport.

Just go to the CarJam homepage (http://www.carjam.co.nz/) for links etc.

why i wonder....i guess they think they should(could) make some $$$$$ out of it

[steve_t]

There's another thread on this from last week. I think it was suggested that the free info is likely to cost around 18c to get, provided Turners don't decide to sting heavily to provide their valuation figures

[cbfb]

Do you have to make a donation to sign that petition?

No mate, it sends your signature off then trys to con you into giving a donation afterwards, just ignore that bit.

[cbfb]

Why? I guess you're dead right, they want the cash. Obviously motorists/bikers don't give them enough already. Next year they'll be wanting everyone's left kidney.

Sorry didn't see the other thread,although hopefully this is a reminder for anyone who didn't sign first time round.

[Gremlin]

Do you have to make a donation to sign that petition?
Fill it in, submit, the next page said signature recorded, would you like to donate.

I closed the window at that point. :yes:

[davereid]

NZTA are entitled to charge the real cost of the transactions they undertake. They are not allowed to make a profit.

So its a reasonable bet that it actually costs them around 16c for a query.

However, the register is (and will remain with the exception of personal data) a public register.

And it could be argued that you have already paid for the data to be stored via the admin fee you pay.

My guess ? The fee will go ahead, but carjam will remain viable due to advertising revenue. They will just be $0.16 poorer per visitor.

[ukusa]

aaarrgghhh, bloody carjam is down. My wifes handbag just got stolen from Bunnings in shirley. Plate BR something 189 was the filthy bastard. Missing one letter, but it was a white Subaru according to the missus.
Gave details to the cops, but hour & a half later still waiting to see them.

[cbfb]

aaarrgghhh, bloody carjam is down. My wifes handbag just got stolen from Bunnings in shirley. Plate BR something 189 was the filthy bastard. Missing one letter, but it was a white Subaru according to the missus.
Gave details to the cops, but hour & a half later still waiting to see them.

That sucks man, hope you have some luck finding the scumbag. Just hope the car wasn't stolen too so you can trace the c*nt.

[ukusa]

That sucks man, hope you have some luck finding the scumbag. Just hope the car wasn't stolen too so you can trace the c*nt.

It's still bloody down. Still waiting for a cop. She had handbag in car while she returned the trolley to the trolley rack which was directly in front of car. Bastard opened door right in front of her, she was about 5 m away. Then jumped into back of Subaru.
Bastards text me about 15 min later pretending to be her ( they had her mobile) saying she had forgotten her pin. I already knew at that stage, so rang the number, they didn't answer. A minute later they text again to say battery was low, just text the pin through. So I replied with an abusive text. Bastards got over $700 cash & both our car keys & work keys. & house keys.
Fucking scum!

[cbfb]

It's still bloody down. Still waiting for a cop. She had handbag in car while she returned the trolley to the trolley rack which was directly in front of car. Bastard opened door right in front of her, she was about 5 m away. Then jumped into back of Subaru.
Bastards text me about 15 min later pretending to be her ( they had her mobile) saying she had forgotten her pin. I already knew at that stage, so rang the number, they didn't answer. A minute later they text again to say battery was low, just text the pin through. So I replied with an abusive text. Bastards got over $700 cash & both our car keys & work keys. & house keys.
Fucking scum!

Fuckers, did you get their mobile no? Maybe that might help cops. Any CCTV in carpark? Assume you've reported theft of cards - hopefully if they try to use it they'll get caught on CCTV at the ATM/shop.

Sorry to hear that man, really sucks :(

[ukusa]

Fuckers, did you get their mobile no? Maybe that might help cops. Any CCTV in carpark? Assume you've reported theft of cards - hopefully if they try to use it they'll get caught on CCTV at the ATM/shop.

Sorry to hear that man, really sucks :(

It's my wife's mobile they used. Everything else done, banks & insurance sorted. Lots of locks to change though as wife had our address on a wof sheet in the handbag.
Don't know about any CCTV

[cbfb]

It's my wife's mobile they used. Everything else done, banks & insurance sorted. Lots of locks to change though as wife had our address on a wof sheet in the handbag.
Don't know about any CCTV

Let us know if you get a good outcome from this, which I really hope you do. Sadly though I don't have a lot of faith in the police in these situations. But hey, carjam's back up and running so you could always resort to a vigilante style lynching. Did you manage to locate the fucktards' vehicle?

[ukusa]

Let us know if you get a good outcome from this, which I really hope you do. Sadly though I don't have a lot of faith in the police in these situations. But hey, carjam's back up and running so you could always resort to a vigilante style lynching. Did you manage to locate the fucktards' vehicle?

no luck on carjam, only 1 Subaru in the list, a silver Impreza but it's plates have since changed. Appears to be a stolen plate.
Cops no help at this stage, wife had to go in & give a a statement. Should have told them the bastard had sustained loss of traction when he sped off, maybe they would have sent all available units.

[cbfb]

Should have told them the bastard had sustained loss of traction when he sped off, maybe they would have sent all available units.

Sadly you're probably right there.