Written By: - Date published: 5:02 pm, July 3rd, 2008 - 116 comments
Categories: activism -
Tags:
The truck companies are going to blockade our motorways tomorrow morning to protest being forced to pay a levy to cover the damage their trucks do to the roads. They expect us to pick up the tab instead.
Well, hey, we all like a free-ride, don’t we?
So, click on the image below and print off your own “I want a free ride too” poster that you can wave to the trucks from the side of the road or while you’re stuck in the traffic-jams they cause. Ask the drivers if you can get aboard - fair’s fair, they’re asking for a free-ride from you, the taxpayer.
The Herald is keen to get your pics here . Get on TV with a poster and win a Standardista bus pass.
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Scoopit!
T-Rex
Sorry was bad attempt at sarcasm.
Sort of on topic, can anyone who supports truckies tell me what the base material for asphalt (black stuff roads are made of) is and by how much that has increased in the last year?
andy
I’ll ask a parallel question to that. Because I’ve been involved in the running of a trucking company, all be it a small one with only 5 trucks and a few trailers, a few years ago now.
Can anyone who supports the way it was introduced tell me how a trucking company typically buys its RUC? What sort of distances are purchased and how often that occurs? How many licenses/hubbo’s might be in use and the implications of not having time to check soon to expire or recently expired licenses?
Here is the transit NZ Auckland Motorway cameras.
Will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow regardless.
http://traffic.transit.govt.nz/Traffic.do?view=cctv
Click on the picture S1CJM and you get a pop up window of the Nth western and southern at spaghetti junction, this is my pick for a choke point.
Cousin Bruce has given me a cattle truck and trailer unit to join the convoy. I am so excited.
burt
It was introduced terribly, no argument. As I said up thread King wants to change mechanism.
Don’t know don’t own a trucking firm. Its a compliance cost, it may suck but we all have to check our warrants and rego’s and take time out to sort them out. I am sure a small company would be able to to have some process in place to try to mitigate problems, well a smart operator should like all businesses.
BTW its a shit system, its all we got at present.
I noticed that King said (on Campbell live) there was about $40 million in outstanding RUC’s at present, sounded a bit throw away to me but still if that is true that is a massive cost to the honest truckies and other road users.
Gotta go, got early start to beat the madness. Have been warned, so mustn’t grumble.
night.
ha ha d4j, make sure its full of cattle that can escape!
I like the spikes idea, not that you would ever get away with it (unless you’re sneaky)
would all the truckies and the righties on this blog prefer it if we had Maurice Williamsons privatised roads as he wanted to do in the last National govt. The RUC’s couldnt be called a tax anymore, they would be required to cover costs and a commercial return would have to made on any dollar spent. I’m sure roads would be cheaper then? Yeah right.
maurice williamson is a dick who when we lived in wellington had time only for my friend’s girl and mine. And he failed. big small time. is he as much of a dick as i got a glimpse of?
No comment on the truckies but the captcha was “socialist worship” – couldn’t let that one go by!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7486764.stm
Oil up to $146 per barrel Bloody labour government
andy
If you don’t know much about it, as you admitted above when you said;
Then you might want to read this;
Road user charges: 1-6 tonne vehicles and that’s just the details for the small trucks. Boring I know, but will inform that opinion of it being something like warrants and rego’s.
The system is sound, it’s costs are it’s costs but if it’s being used as a revenue stream to build new roads rather than a maintenance fund then that’s wrong, but also another issue.
If you think the system sucks then how would you suggest electric powered vehicles are taxed to use the roads? Perhaps I could guess, private cars wouldn’t be so it’s not your problem.
“ha ha d4j, make sure its full of cattle that can escape!”
How about loading it up with bees rubber ducky. Convoy!
Swampy: Truckers are vastly subsidised compared to road users for the amount of road damage/degradation they cause per vehicle without even factoring in the fact that trucks are likely to travel more than most other vehicles, increase congestion (and thus pollution and time inefficiency) more than other traffic, and are a larger safety hazard even when under the control of an expert driver simply due to their size. That you pay a little for the maintenance of the railway tracks in order to make up for cost-free externalities like cleaner public transport through electrified railways is not too unfair given the circumstances, I think, especially as passenger services by rail usually run at a loss in New Zealand in order to make keeping the environment healthy, allowing travellers more reading time, and reducing road congestion a viable reality.
What exactly stops you from passing this cost on to the consumer anyway? I support the right to protest, but frankly I don’t see how it will kill the business if the charges go up, especially as this keeps larger companies from buying up large amounts of road user charges in advance and out-competing independent truckers or ones that don’t get in bed with a speculator.
I should perhaps also mention that I appreciate the irony of my previous comment given that my blog is named Still Truckin’
Labour just doesn’t get it. It looks like it wants to be the Limbo party. How low can it go?
It’s fun watching Labour self destruct. How many more people can they annoy for no gain before election day?
God you right-wingers are morons: You claim to know economics but you show a serious lack of aptitude when it comes to anything other than…
“Tax cuts give me more money?!”
This process is called internalising an external cost i.e making truckies pay more for costs that the public currently bear.
“A 2005 Transport Ministry report showed trucks only paid 56 percent of the costs they caused to the economy whereas rail freight paid 82 percent.”
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“Road user charges had only been raised once since 1989″
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“Last time there was a rise truckies purchased an extra $17 million in charge vouchers in the two-day period before the rise took effect, defeating the purpose”
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All pretty straight forward to me!
Perhaps with further taxation we may be gently coerced to more sustainable methods of transport and won’t suffer so much from the next oil shock…just one of the thoughts I used to have whilst driving a B-Train from Christchurch to Nelson in my uni holidays.
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/greens-say-truckies-should-not-hold-country-ransom-32752#Scene_1
El Pinko, You’re not very well informed.
The STCC found that if roads had to pay a return on capital like railways did at the time and if you excluded GST then trucks only covered 56% of their costs. If you exclude the return on capital because the railways aren’t being run for a profit anymore and include GST because truckies actually pay it then trucks actually pay 130% of the costs they impose on the economy.
RUCs weren’t raised during the 90s because road maintenance costs didn’t increase during the 90s. The OECD’s DIVINE study explains why costs hadn’t increased. Did you B-train have road friendly suspension?
Truckies pay an average $1.5m per day for RUC distance licenses. Purchasing two weeks worth in two days would hardly have defeated the point of the increase.
I I don’t support the truckkie protest. Like others have said above, they’re looking for others to subsidise their use of roads. I support their right to protest, but am not impressed by their use of macho bullying tactics for this protest – using their size compared with other road users to push their point. This is too similar to the behaviour I see by quite a lot of truckies. These are the ones who disregard pedestrian rights by continually running red lights and driving across crossings where pedestrians have the right of way: dangerous, scary for pedestrians and disregards the rights of others.
And how clever is it to use these bullying protest tactics to drive road users onto public transport? This is already a much better option for those of us who regularly travel to work by train: cheaper and less stress.
And ultimately, given the current conditions regarding fuel and pressures internationally, more people and goods are going to travel by rail in the future. No amount of truckie protests will change that.
Perhaps I could guess, private cars wouldn’t be so it’s not your problem.
nope, they should pay a similar RUC to the equivalent weight Diesel vehicle.
IMO Diesel vehicles should have tax on diesel at the pump like petrol. Off road and marine diesel should stay the same.
just like a V8 driver pays way more tax than a 1.2l vehicle.
Had to laugh, this morning ARC indicates it will raise petrol tax in Auckland by 1c a litre, sneaked that under the news radar.
Was that pushed through under the same legislation as the RUC rise?
captcha: cabinet engine
Damn my homepage is down. As a good aucklander that is
http://traffic.transit.govt.nz/
I usually have a look at the traffic before deciding when to leave for work. Looks like the site has a bit of traffic this morning.
A truckie in the paper this morning reckoned he paid an average 52c per kilometre in RUC. Seems like quite a lot to pass over one kilometre of road. Exactly like a toll road – in fact probably more!
[lprent: bye bye Andrew. I consider that to be a troll. Take a week. You could argue if you like but it wouldn't be wise]
Unfortunately, looking at this morning’s performance, I think your prayers will go unnoticed.
It never fails to surprise me the lack of thought that the general population gives to their own circumstances.
Looks like the ‘Protest’ is a ‘success’.
Gridlock achieved, what next?
BB
I would love to know the cost to rate/tax payers extra police etc. Also in NZ herald St Johns and Fire Dept had to forward stage appliances to make sure they were not stuck.
No courier fees paid from my work today, poor buggers.
Bill – Tell me about it. I can’t remember the name of the idiot on ‘Breakfast’ today, but he had the following to say (paraphrased):
“This is ridiculous, what was normally a 7 minute taxi ride took me 45 minutes! On the other hand I do support the truckers, direct action does get results and petrol prices are far too high, real people are hurting, it’s time the government listened and did something about it”.
Well congratulations on TOTALLY failing to grasp the issue there mate.
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Most people I know would rather b*tch about the status quo than put some effort into understanding it. Usually if you pin them down you can spell it out and they usually end up quite happy, but GOD it takes some effort! It’d be SO much easier if people used their brains without having to be compelled to.
Paul Henry is the enemy of free thought.
T-Rex
Why would anyone take a seven minute taxi ride at rush hour ?
Walk or get on a bike you twat !
Why would anyone take a seven minute taxi ride at rush hour ?
I think it was OPM (other peoples money), possibly yours and mine if it was TVNZ!
Oh the Irony of Paul Henry railing against Govt waste while getting perks on the tax payer.
T-rex and Bill.
My dear old dad used to tell me , quoting his father,
“I’d love to argue with you son, but I’ll have to educate you first”
It’s 9.31am, and from my office window, I’ve got a ringside seat to the carnage – pun intended – on Wellingtons Urban Motorway. I’m seeing waves and toots of support, but no angry fist’s as cars crawl by trucks. Oh, and on the way to work, one solitary “free ride” poster placed, ironically, on the side of a rubbish bin outside the train station.
So, why are guys/gals like Steve, Tane, ‘rex, Draco, et al on the wrong side of the public on this?
It sure isn’t internalised costs or environmental concern. Most people, truckies included, are fine with that, I suspect. It’s simply that the move was made unannounced, at a time when the industry is quite clearly hurting. No more, no less.
vto: “A truckie in the paper this morning reckoned he paid an average 52c per kilometre in RUC.”
That would be 5.2 cents per km. The truckie doesn’t know how to divide by 1000.
I don’t know about you fullas, but all I can hear is honk honk honk and stupid helicopters flying above. Time for another coffee I think, my productivity’s gonna take a hit today.
Phil et al, get real do you really think that thousands of truckies would waste a whole morning on a protest merely over the timing of the announcement of a RUC increase?
This strike was planned ahead of the annoucement of the increase. And the public is interpretting it as a protest against fuel prices driven by taxation – that’s based on the false premise that taxation on fuel is increasing when it’s actually falling but the Nats knew that this false impression would be given when they planned the strike.
This is nothing more than politicking.
Nice to see thousands of Wellingtonians out there waving your banners guys – not! Newstalk ZB is reporting that hundreds of be-suited public servants are out on the streets cheering and waving in support to the truckers, in what they describe as a huge blow to the government.
National attacked the Government yesterday over increased road-user charges and a law passed last night allowing regional fuel taxes to fund large capital projects - but won’t say it would undo them.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10519903
Nothing to see here move on…
Looks like another one the Standard and Labour have called wrong. People are laughing and applauding the truckers. The SHell Jervois Quay staff were particularly supportive.