If you know Matt he is either hard at work at the workshop desk, using his spare moments to have a quality spar with words or doing a bit of both. The hours are long and annual leave is precious so it was a bit of a surprise when Matt took the day off work to support Mark Chapple and his fight for fair treatment from ACC for motorcyclists.  As Matt says it's rare to see a $50000 motorcycle that's been in a crash but we see smaller bikes day to day. Images: Matt after closing

Matt's Report

I went on a group ride on Monday, my first one ever. The weather was pretty nice and I saw a bunch of TSS customers and met a few potential ones too. I think there were probably 60-80 bikes so was a decent turnout.

The ride was from Waitangi Park to the High court outside Parliament. It was not really a protest but a ride to show support for Mark Chapple who has taken the ACC to court over what many think are unfair cost increases. Mark has had to invest considerable time and money to do something that, if successful, could benefit all motorcyclists.

Image: Parliament house, Wellington

Essentially, all Rego fees have been increased, but bikes over 750cc have been hit hardest, with 12 months Rego now costing $816 and in 12 months’ time that will increase to $960 per year.

ACC claim that bigger bikes have more serious accidents resulting in higher claim payouts. I know from all the insurance work we do in the workshop that if anything, the opposite is true.  Learner bikes crash far more often and are often written off, with riders having serious injuries.

Many larger capacity bikes are ridden by older riders who are more conservative and take less risks, they also often ride their bikes less frequently, and often only in fine weather. So, Mark is challenging the ACC on their statistics and if they actually support the increases and how they are deciding to implement them.

This billing approach also unfairly targets people who own multiple vehicles and multiple bikes. It also fails to take into account the number of claims for accidents on non-registered vehicles, such as dirt bikes, race bikes and farm vehicles. Owners of these vehicles are not contributing to their own compensation at all in many cases.

Image: gettyimages.co.nz

The ACC has also shown lack of transparency with its own data and much of that data is incomplete or not comprehensive enough to draw any conclusions.  Anyway, it turns out that Mark might actually have a pretty good case. But at the very least he has managed to  get on the news and draw attention to it.

I think most people are pretty used to bills increasing and everything being expensive these days, but enough is enough. 

Thanks to Matt for taking a day off to represent us and for this report.