🤔 What does this frequent user message mean?

For many years, despite the protests and pleas, businesses, including some of the biggest in New Zealand, have been abusing CarJam in direct contravention of the Terms and Conditions.

Consequently, CarJam needs commercial and high-frequency users to open a business account and pay for fair usage when the data is not in the CarJam database.

When people look up a plate, CarJam shows what it has in the database for free.

If CarJam does not have it, CarJam has historically paid the NZTA a fee for every plate to provide the data to the public without payment.

Abuse of these "free" lookups by commercial entities has increased to the point that CarJam can no longer sustain them while still providing the service the general public expects.

CarJam has implemented the rules to prevent abuse by these commercial entities.

The high-frequency users will continue to enjoy free lookups when CarJam has data. However, they will have to pay 20c+GST when CarJam fetches the data from the NZTA (16c+GST goes to the NZTA).

Most basic lookups will remain free as the CarJam database satisfies over 80% of these lookups for most needs.

The more businesses adopt this fair use model, the more vehicles will be for everyone for free, and the cheaper the overall cost to all businesses will be as the average price drops.

In summary, the transition to requiring high-frequency users to open an account and pay for missing lookups is not about profit but creating a fair system for the public and all businesses. This change will ensure that those who use the service more frequently contribute to its sustainability, benefiting all users in the long run.