Transport Minister Simeon Brown has unveiled a fleet of pothole monitoring vans that will patrol New Zealand’s roads, outfitted with advanced digital equipment to look for signs of wear and tear.

Brown said the fleet of five vans, formally known as “road condition data collection (CCDC) research vans,” will travel around the country collecting data to monitor the condition of our roads and determine when they need maintenance.

Brown said the government would now require automated road surface inspections to be carried out on all paved roads at least once every two years, while inspections of high-end roads would be carried out once a year.

One van will cover Auckland and Northland, a second will cover the central North Island, a third will cover the lower North Island and the top of the South, and a fourth will cover the rest of the South Island. There will also be a fifth van, the scope of which is currently unclear.

“These vans will provide consistent, high-quality road surface condition data on a scale never seen before in New Zealand, replacing the inefficient and manual field inspections that currently take place in many locations across the country,” Mr Brown said.