Subj : Road user charges for all drivers? What Govt's policy will mean for yo To : All From : News Date : Fri Apr 26 2024 12:57 pm The Government wants to shift gears on how it funds transportation. 1News examines how that might look for New Zealand drivers in the coming years. Building and maintaining roads is an expensive business. This is why drivers contribute to the cost of the roads they're using. At the moment, New Zealand's drivers pay for the land transport system in a few different ways, including the vehicle licence (or "rego") fee, road user charges (RUC) and the petrol excise duty (PED). However, the Government has pledged to move away from the fuel excise tax and have electronic road user charging in place for all vehicles. What are road user charges (RUC)? New Zealand has had road user charges since the late 1970s. Traditionally, these have been paper licences bought in units of 1000km. Drivers are supposed to pre-pay for these and buy a new RUC licence before they've driven all of the distance covered by their existing licence. Drivers can buy their RUC at a NZTA Waka Kotahi agent, like the post office, or online. Electronic road user charges (eRUC) have also been in place since 2010. NZTA Waka Kotahi has several approved providers for eRUC, which automates the buying of the road user charges and displays them on a device. Who currently pays road user charges? Vehicles that weigh more than 3500kg pay RUC. Lighter vehicles also pay RUC if they are powered by diesel, electricity or another fuel that isn't taxed at its source. Light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrids only began paying road user charges this month. EVs that weigh more than 3500kg are still exempt from paying RUC, but will start paying them after December 31, 2025. Why does the Govt want all drivers to pay RUC eventually? Other drivers currently pay a levy when they buy petrol for their vehicle, but the Government wants to eventually replace that fuel tax with a road user charge. Doing so is part of National's coalition agreement with ACT. Moving EVs to road user charges is just the first step in this plan, according to Transport Minister Simeon Brown. "Moving all vehicles into the road user charges system will mean all motorists pay for road maintenance based on the kilometres travelled, rather than the amount of fuel they put in their tanks," he said. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on land transport will also work towards time-of-use charging on the country's most congested roads, otherwise known as congestion charging. The Government expects those changes to take place over the course of the GPS, which currently covers 2024 to 2034. Are there any problems with all of that? Some people believe road user charges would unfairly penalise drivers who live in more remote communities and must travel further distances. Brown has said those people already have to pay more than other drivers because they need to use more petrol. Infrastructure consultant Andrew Bowman wrote in a recent paper that moving all vehicles to RUC would create "a more equitable system where all road users contribute their fair share to the upkeep and enhancement of the roads they use". He said moving to eRUC could also be seen as a progressive policy, as older vehicles typically used by lower income households currently pay proportionally more fuel excise duty than people with newer cars. This is because older cars are much less fuel efficient. However, there could be other headaches in implementing a wider RUC system. NZTA Waka Kotahi documents from last year showed the agency was already concerned about the resources needed to shift EVs to road user charges. "Current resources are set up to manage the existing RUC system. There will not be enough resource to cope with the increase in education, engagement and enforcement needed," it said. The agency also said it expected "an increase of non-compliance and debt" with EV drivers entering the RUC system - problems that would presumably extend to other drivers also switching to road user charges. --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A44 2020/02/04 (Windows/64) * Origin: S.W.A.T.S BBS Telnet swatsbbs.ddns.net:2323 (63:10/102) .