{"id":602758,"date":"2026-09-17T01:54:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T01:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/602758\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T01:54:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T01:54:27","slug":"govt-scraps-stupid-rules-to-help-pubs-drive-patrons-home-safely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/602758\/","title":{"rendered":"Govt scraps ‘stupid rules’ to help pubs drive patrons home safely"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Government says a new rule change will make it easier for hospitality businesses to get people home safely and help reduce the risk of drink driving. <\/p>\n

Some hospitality businesses including bars, RSAs and clubs, offer free courtesy van services to pick up patrons from their homes and drop them off safely to prevent drink-driving. <\/p>\n

These services are strictly free of charge to comply with NZ transport licensing laws. If a hospitality business accepts financial contributions towards the running costs of their transport service, or charges patrons, it triggers passenger service requirements – meaning they are treated like a taxi service. <\/p>\n

\"Transport<\/p>\n

Transport Minister Chris Bishop said this was a “practical change” that would help reduce the risk of drink driving, particularly in rural communities. (Source: istock.com)<\/p>\n

Regulation Minister David Seymour said the next steps in the implementation of the Ministry for Regulation’s Hospitality Sector Review was “deleting more stupid rules and cutting more red tape”.<\/p>\n

“I heard from one business who were paying about $12,000 per month to offer their customers rides home. That was coming straight out of their pocket. Not being able to cover those costs in a meaningful way prevents more venues from offering this service,” Seymour said. <\/p>\n

\"Some<\/p>\n

Some hospitality businesses including local bars, RSAs and clubs, offer free courtesy van services to pick up patrons from their homes and drop them off safely after closing. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

The Review found that whether a business accepts financial contributions or not has zero effect on how safe the ride service is. <\/p>\n

“It\u2019s just a barrier to more hospitality businesses offering this service for their customers. That\u2019s why the Government is accepting the Ministry for Regulation\u2019s recommendation to scrap those rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many places in New Zealand where traditional ride services are unavailable. If the local pub offers a ride service, people who shouldn\u2019t be driving home have a better option.\u201d<\/p>\n

Transport Minister Chris Bishop said this was a “practical change” that would help reduce the risk of drink driving, particularly in rural communities. <\/p>\n

\"Regulation<\/p>\n

Regulation Minister David Seymour and Transport Minister Chris Bishop. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want more hospitality businesses to have the means to offer them, so more Kiwis can benefit from them. That\u2019s why we are making this change.<\/p>\n

“These changes have been added the existing transport regulatory reform work programme, with the intention of being in force by mid-2027.<\/p>\n

The Review also found the hospitality sector has experienced inconsistency in how excessive noise is dealt with by councils. <\/p>\n

“The Government intends to improve standardisation of noise controls across the country under the new Planning system which will ensure greater consistency,” Bishop said. <\/p>\n

“In the meantime, guidance on managing excessive noise is available through the Quality Planning website administered by MCERT, supporting councils to take a more consistent approach to assessing and responding to noise complaints.<\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including how hard it might be to shake up our supermarkets, and speculation mounts over the new James Bond. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government says a new rule change will make it easier for hospitality businesses to get people home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[20784,138,111,43,139,69,112],"class_list":["post-602758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-alcohol","tag-business","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-transport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}