Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Justin Tighe-Umbers: National Road Carriers Association Chief Executive on road user charges

Transcript

Justin Tighe-Umbers: National Road Carriers Association Chief Executive on road user charges · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Fueld taxes are out, road user charges are in for everyone.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: The government scrapping the two tier system where petrol drivers
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: paid at the pump, diesel and EV's paid per kilometer
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: though not their fair share, and the new system will
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: be electronic and reflect our changing vehicle fleet according to
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: the government. Justin Tayumbas is the National Road Carrier Association CEO.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Justin good morning, Good morning Ran.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: What are truckies? And I know people don't like that
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: term anymore, but what do they think of it? What
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: does it mean for them?
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, I think what it means ultimately for truckies
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: road transport operators is going to be that we'll get
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: our roads paid for in a better way than what
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: we are at the moment. So there's a big leak
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: in the bucket, Ryan, and that's you know, we're just
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: not bringing in enough from the current system, from the
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: fuel tax at the pump where the numbers billions actually
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: in terms of what we're behind for what we need
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: to maintain our current network and hopefully build some better roads.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: So no road freight industry will be pleased with us change.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Does it make it cheaper for road freight?
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Look, we want to see the network paid for in
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: a fair share. And what happens when you move to
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: ruckers the road user charges. You start paying by weight
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: and distance traveled, which is actually fairer than paying for
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: what you pay for at the pump, because that just
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: depends on how efficient your petrol engine is. So road
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: freight will continue to want to pay for the fair share,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: but absolutely plugging this gap, we've got cars that aren't
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: paying for the fair usage that will certainly make it better.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: None of this is coming until twenty twenty seven at
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: the earliest. Should the government be making it more of
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: a priority. Should it be happening sooner than that?
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you could argue that the challenges I guess is
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: that the government of the Crown is having to put
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: in grants, taxpayer money is having to go in to
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: prop up maintaining the road network. So certainly we need
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: to get on with it. That said, it's a once
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: in fifty year change. Every country around the world's actually
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: facing this problem were you've got evs and far more
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: efficient petrol engines just reducing how roading's paid for. New
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Zealand's actually and we're in quite a good position because
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: we're world pioneers in road user charges. We were the
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: first to bring it out in the late seventies. We're
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: still a world leader on it with Electronic Rock for
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: how trucks pay for it, so we're actually in quite
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: a strong position compared to other countries.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Justin great to have you on the show. As always,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Justin taiamba's National Road Carry Association CEO.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: to news talks that be from five am weekdays, or
• 2:39
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