Disreputable trucking companies will fold as changes to the road-user charges regime claw back some of the up to $160 million the scheme is costing the economy, industry insiders say.
Their claims came as Transport Minister Stephen Joyce yesterday announced changes which he said would make the 32-year-old system easier to understand and fairer to all who pay their share.
The proposals would reduce compliance costs by changing the definition of licence weights, removing the confusing time licence system, and simplifying the list of exempted vehicles.
They would also make things harder for those who do not pay their road-user charges - a problem officials conservatively estimate costs about $30 million a year, Mr Joyce said.
"Currently, honest payers ... are subsidising those who evade payment. Changes to legislation will remove a number of evasion opportunities and encourage timely payment, making the system fairer for all," Mr Joyce said.
Road Transport Forum chief executive Ken Shirley said the proposals were substantially in line with what the forum had been asking for.
A simplified structure should make significant inroads on the $30 million "deadweight" cost of compliance and the $30 million "eaten up" by administration.
Reputable firms would be pleased to see the Government was ready to tackle payment-evaders, which Mr Shirley said cost at least $70 million a year more than Mr Joyce's advisers suggested.
"The honest cannot continue to subsidise the dishonest, and we'd hope that these proposals would take us some way to addressing that and reducing the costs that are, in effect, being robbed from the productive part of our economy."
Dunedin-based forum executive member Peter Sutherland hoped the double-whammy changes would deliver the compliance and administrative savings they promised.
The road-user charges were a significant cost to business and waste had to be eliminated.
He also hoped they would eliminate the operators who were ripping the system "and everyone else" off.
"There are companies out there that are relying on not paying their charges to stay in business.
"If forcing them to comply means they go out of business, then that's good."
Mr Joyce said a review of how the road-user charge was levied on different road users would be done before the proposals were introduced to Parliament later this year.
Road user charges
- You are supposed to pay a road-user charge if you drive a diesel-powered vehicle or vehicle weighing more than 3500kg.
- Many in the transport industry say the current system is complex and costly.
- An inquiry was announced after vehicle owners protested the charges in nationwide truck rallies in 2008.
PROPOSED CHANGES INCLUDE:
- Allowing each vehicle to have its own permanent road-user charge weight.
- Removing the time licence system and modernising of the list of vehicles exempted from the charge.
- Improving the system overall to try to beat evasion.
- Better regulations for electronic management systems.
- Simplifying and making less costly the process around offences and penalties, particularly for light vehicles.
