Question mark over caravan compliance program

A 'lemon laws' campaigner has cast doubt on industry claims that caravans displaying the RVMAP compliance audit badge are less likely to suffer defects than vans not boasting the industry 'seal of approval'.

Speaking on an episode of 'The Caravan Show' podcast hosted by Sunland Caravans' boss Roy Wyss, Caravan Industry Association of Australia CEO Stuart Lamont said that the Association's 'official' RVMAP audit program, introduced in 2013 to address build quality and non-compliance issues within the RV industry, had contributed to a 40 per cent decrease in defects seen in the marketplace over the past two years.

Lamont said that while the Australian caravan industry is one of the most heavily regulated, "the enforcement of our regulations has let us down as an industry." He described the RVMAP program as a "tough regime" for the 60-plus manufacturers that currently pay to take part in the scheme.

The head of the peak national body said the RVMAP audit program was originally  introduced due to a "concern that there was some poor quality product streaming into the industry primarily from overseas but some of the local manufacturers were not doing us a favour either".

"While the Federal Government inspected six caravan products last year, as an industry association we went and inspected over 1100," claimed Lamont.

However, lemon caravan laws campaigner Tracy Leigh who founded the popular Lemon Caravans & RVs in Aus Facebook site, said a lot of grievances reported within her group were related to RVMAP-badged caravans.

"Anecdotally, from members of my group (almost 54,000 now) and from repairers around the country, the problems are worsening. There is no regulatory enforcement, as Lamont stated," Leigh said.

"The increase in problems are from both RVMAP and non-RVMAP accredited manufacturers. The turn around time for inspection and repairs is pushing out to months, not weeks, due to the increasing number of defective products," she claimed.

"Many repairers refuse to do warranty claims because they are either screwed down in price and/or not paid for months."

Lamont also referred to statistics that "showcase there are four times less issues with products that carry the (RVMAP) badge to those that aren't”.

However, Leigh claimed that the CIAA has a conflict of interest and "rarely enforces its RVMAP contract" with participating manufacturers.

"RVMAP accreditation has a yearly fee but also a fee per unit manufactured. Each unit must have the RVMAP key sticker placed on it. This fee is between about $50 to $80 per unit. So for the larger manufacturers, if the CIAA enforced their contract stringently they would lose the majority of their funding," she claimed.

While the CIAA has previously admitted problems around recurring issues with some participating manufacturers despite regular audits, Lamont suggested the audit program should be mandatory for all caravan brands operating in Australia.

"You're just dicing not only with your life but that of your family," he said. "Some of the product I've seen that have not subjected themselves to industry inspections, and (manufacturers/importers that) do not make a commitment (to an industry audit), those products should not be on the road."

According to the CIAA website, there are currently just over 60 RVMAP-accredited manufacturers in Australia, although the list doesn't include some big selling brands like Jayco and New Age Caravans.

Melbourne-based New Age previously took part in the RVMAP program but said it is now focussing on its own in-house, automotive-style, quality control program since being taken over by the Walkinshaw Group.

"Since becoming part of the Walkinshaw Group, we have put a focus on our own internal processes and ensuring they adhere to the highest standards and there has been a lot of investment into making our product as safe, compliant and replicable as the automotive side of the business," a New Age spokesperson said.

Leigh claimed that one of the problems with the RVMAP program was if caravan buyers do experience serious issues, the "CIAA has no complaints resolution mechanism for consumers who have been unable to resolve their issues with RVMAP accredited members".

Lamont also suggested some caravan buyers are being unrealistic in expecting to purchase a completely 'fault free' new caravan, considering the number of 'lemon' cars produced by the highly-automated automotive industry.

"Some 50 per cent of individuals still have a major problem with their new car, and yet there's an expectation that a caravan that's made up of 1200 moving parts, should be free of fault," Lamont said.

"We need to minimise that the best we can... but unfortunately things do go wrong, and we need to make sure when things go wrong manufacturers are committed to fixing that as best they can on behalf of the consumer."

Leigh said that it's "possible to eliminate observable defects through proper quality control and most latent defects through quality assurance".

She said that "very few manufacturers have effective quality control processes and this shows in the number of minor defects that either dealers repair or consumers find on their first trip".

Leigh also took a swipe at comments made by Sunland boss Roy Wyss, when he referred to the extra build costs of producing Australian caravans tough enough to cope with local roads and conditions.

"(Australian built caravans) are not designed to last five years, they're designed to last 20 years, because unless you design it to last 20 years, it's not going to last five minutes when you take it out on our road conditions," Wyss claimed.

Wyss' Queensland-built Sunland caravans are covered by a five year manufacturers warranty, along with an industry-leading 20 year chassis warranty.

However, Leigh argued that if "this is the case, then under the Australian Consumer Law a consumer should be able to expect an Australian built caravan to be durable for 20 years and can claim repairs for defects for that period".

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