New Zealand’s recent licensing crackdown has pulled nearly 460 Indian truck drivers off the road, leaving hundreds of families suddenly stuck and searching for answers. In just a few weeks, the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) cancelled these commercial licences, all held by Indian nationals.
For many, this came out of nowhere, and it’s thrown their lives into chaos. Families lost their main income overnight. Protests have broken out across Auckland, with drivers saying they got duped by dodgy paperwork and didn’t even realise it.
What exactly happened, and why did it hit so many Indian drivers?
It all started back in July, when NZTA ran an audit and found big problems with how some overseas licences were being swapped out for New Zealand heavy-vehicle licences, the kind you need to drive trucks here.
According to the NZ Herald, they first cancelled 440 licences in November; now it’s almost 460. The reason? NZTA says drivers used fake or altered documents to prove their experience from overseas.
Shelley Milton from NZTA told Newstalk ZB they dug deep into this to keep roads safe. Anyone caught giving false info faces fines up to NZ$750 (about Rs 40,000), but so far, no criminal charges.
Fake Documents Probe Leads to Mass Licence Cancellation
Official data, reported by The Noticer, shows all cancelled licences belonged to Indian nationals. Of these, 436 were tied to documents from the UAE, 18 from Australia, and five from Canada. Most drivers are in their early thirties, almost all men. Just two women lost their licences.
A lot of these drivers had letters from companies in Dubai to back up their experience. These letters, which used to be accepted, could be bought online for NZ$500 to NZ$1,000 (Rs 27,000–54,000). Now, NZTA says they’re “non-verifiable or invalid,” so the licences are gone.
So, what does New Zealand actually ask for if you want to swap your truck licence? If you come from an “exempt” country, places like Australia, the UK, Canada, Germany, Japan, France, the US, South Africa, and some others it’s pretty straightforward: prove your identity, meet eyesight and medical checks, pass a theory test, pay your fees, get your photo taken, and you’re good.
If you’re from a non-exempt country, like India, you have to do all that plus pass a practical driving test.
Licence Fraud Scandal
Once the news broke, hundreds of drivers and their families gathered in Auckland to protest. Amritpal Singh, a father of two, told RNZ he’s lost everything.
“NZTA has taken away our family’s only source of income. How will I feed my kids now?” Another driver, Parminder Singh, said, “We can’t even pay rent. Our wives and children are being penalised for no fault of theirs.”
Sidhu, who runs a transport business, told the crowd that drivers paid for these Dubai letters thinking they were legitimate because officials used to accept them. Now, those same drivers are out of work—some with more than a decade of experience behind the wheel.
