Director of the University of Auckland's Centre for Supply Chain Management Tava Olsen told Checkpoint a system for Auckland travellers to cross the border in the summer holidays would be "doable" if government got to work on it right now, but it would be very difficult.
She said it is a “question of picking the least bad option for Auckland”.
Last Christmas Eve, approximately 43,000 vehicles left Auckland, according to NZTA figures.
In that scenario, Olsen said checking every car for a vaccine certificate would not be an option.
“There's just no way you could check all those 43,000 cars, so people would actually have to sign up for a spot and some people wouldn't get to leave Christmas Eve.
“I would probably have a system where you're going to do spot checks, and you're going to have big fines for people who haven't got all their paperwork in order. That is a slightly riskier system because you aren't checking everybody.”