Mark Heine: Eroad co-CEO reveals how electronic RUCs could work

Fuel taxes are set to be replaced by road user charges for all vehicles - and it's left many wondering how these changes will be implemented.

Eroad has welcomed this development, and their share price has risen in the hours since Transport Minister Chris Bishop made this announcement.

Eroad co-CEO Mark Heine says the company's been making use of electronic road user charges (eRUC) for years and says the technology's there to get this going.

"We're still working through with the Government for the pricing for that, but our target is to get it as cheap as possible."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from news Talk zed B.
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
One of the lingering questions after yesterday's announcement on the
road user charges v petrol tax shakeup is how this
is going to work. Well, there's a key we company
called E Road based in Auckland. It's already delivering exactly
this for our trucking industry. Mark Heine is the co
CEO of E Road.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Hey, Mark, good afternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Mark explains me how you guys do this.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
So, look, eerotechnology has been around for a number of
years and it's very prominent in the hippy vehicle space.
So to have eruck, you need three things. One, you
need to know the distance travel by a vehicle. Seeking,
you need a platform to collects that data and enables
payment for use of the roads. And finding need that
data connection. So those three elements create this eruck system

(00:59):
to enable pain for use of the roads.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Right, So, if I have a new car, I imagine
this reasonably. No, Actually, let me imagine assume nothing. If
I have a new car bought it last year, Let's
just say, what do I need to install?

Speaker 3 (01:12):
Look, many new cars already are connected. They already have
a SIM card in them, so it's simply a matter
of an API. I've been switched on. Data flows through
and you can make your payment straight away now as
the minute to mention. They want it to be as
easy as paying for Netflix. The technology is already there
to enable that.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Okay, old car Old.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
You need probably some aftermarket hardware. So if you've got
to Sydney you see this, All toll tags and vehicles
just need something like that, something really unobtrusive, easy to install,
collect stata and then transmit it back to the platform
and you get gained paid in credit easily, just like Netflix.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
How much does that cost?

Speaker 3 (01:46):
So we're still working through with the government the pricing
for that, but our target is to get it as
cheap as possible. That toll tag and Sydney costs around
forty dollars to buy. We'd like to see something around
that price, if not lower than that.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Can it be gained?

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Can it can be gamed? Look for all these things,
you have robust technology and tamper proof protections in them.
We've got one hundreds twenty thousand pieces of are hardware
out there. People aren't gaving them it's pretty robust and reliable.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
You can't wind the odometer back, cut a cable, do
something like.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
That, not for this sort of technology. No you can't.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
How sure are you of that? Because you know we
find ways, don't we.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
Mark a look? Kerries are very creative and have a
lot of ingenuity. But a good thing is this relies
on GPS technology. It's fairly robust and really reliable. We
last you create the closest billion dollars on half the
government without costing assent. And it's off the back of
really robust, reliable technology you can't really tample with.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
How do authorities know if that white car driving down
the road hasn't paid their rucks?

Speaker 3 (02:49):
So there's good technology you can start using now, whether
it's around Boluetooth connectivity, doing number play readers in the
light to actually understand what vehicles have connected technology for
e erut and you can pick it up pretty it's
simply if you if they don't have the connection India,
you can go right this white vehicle down the road
doesn't have it. It can pull them over and have
to catch up. There may be some other file safe

(03:10):
mechanism back in there. When you check your waft make
sure the ODO is no consistent of what the eeruch
reader is saying. So's other file safe mechanism you can
put in there to make sure people are being honest
with the use of the road.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
Market reckons, you're going to get one of the contracts.
You're going to get one of the contracts.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
Look, you know E Road was the market leader here.
We developed the technology over ten years ago, so we're
confident that our technology will be great for all kiwis
and so yeah, we're definitely pitching in here and playing
our part.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
How quickly do you reckon? Realistically the government can get
a system like this setup for the entire country.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
Well, the system's already there, so the question is going
to be about how do you best rolled out. Already
a million vehicles have to pay some form of rodeo
to charging. E Road has one hundred and fifty thousand
using our technology already. So the technology is there around
how do you want to stage their roll out? Whether
you want to start with heavy vehicles and then work
your way down to light passenger vehicles. So I think

(04:07):
the government inspectation on timeline is probably fare. Now let
the technology get into the market between now and twenty
twenty seven, and then start phasing this technology into people's vehicles.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Mark, thank you so much. Mike Heine, co CEO of
E Road.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
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