Martin Glynn: Transport Policy Director on the Government switching from a petrol tax to road user charges

The AA is onboard with the switch from petrol tax to electronic Road User Charges, but says there are a few issues to sort out.  

The change is expected to come in by 2027.  

Transport Policy Director Martin Glynn says it's likely there will be devices actually in vehicles to make the measurements.  

He told Mike Hosking it will be easier to implement with modern cars.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
There's nothing like a line, is there? The biggest change
in fifty years to get the old media in a
fizzon off, they went with what seems a fairly simple
to change a payment mechanism as far as I can
work out, petrol taxes going, you'll pay on mileage and
wait the way a lot of people already do. Martin
Glynn's the AA Transports policy director and is with us.
Martin morning to you, good morning mate. In terms of
a revenue stream, this was really the only way the
government could go, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Well? I think absolutely long term, as vehicles become more
fuel fission and people start you know, there's different ways
of pairing vehicles. As we all know, it's just not sustainable.
So yeah, we actually do need to make the shift.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Do you reckon the bearvoners are going to be in
for a shock if they haven't thought that through. Given
a lot of this is based on weight.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Sorry, I didn't quite understand your question the bearvoner.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
So if you went out and bought a bev and
thought I'm not paying petrol anymore? Who Given a lot
of this is based on weight as well as mileage,
you're in for a shot because the chances are you
won't know how much carway isn't it weighs a ton
several tons?

Speaker 2 (00:55):
In fact, I think most people will probably be ok
unless they change the weight classification. There's been no hint
to that, so at the moment the minimum cut off
for the very largest level is three point five tons
through a vehicle, so hopefully most people will come with
a map.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
The electronics behind it. Do you is the transfer easy
if you get an app or you get a sensor
in your car or whatever it turns out to be,
Is that easy?

Speaker 2 (01:22):
The announcement's been a little bit vague, certainly for new cars.
The Minister's been clear that a lot of that data
in the systems are already available in the car itself,
so that that should be fairly straightforward. But I think
that what he seems to be singling is that we're
moving to electronic devices, you know, to measure distance and weight,

(01:46):
So that would be actually something in vehicles like we
have the heavy vehicles now in the old.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Suit, well the current system when you buy mile, so
you're running a diesel, you buy miles that can slip
because it's all paperwork, and you wander into the post
office and all that sort of stuff is they've got
to get around that, don't they.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, that's the big issue because people need to check
their doometers. You know, that's none of us need to
do that with any other kind of bullets. It just
it just comes to us. So he's made it pretty
clear that will be addressed and we're looking to see
how that will be. And then you're right, you can
go online and that's fairly straightforward, but you've got to

(02:23):
wait for a for a license in the mail and
then put on your one screen. So it sounds like,
well that's going to.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Go, okay, good on your Mutin appreciate it, Martin Glynn.
I'm assuming I'm probably being foolish here, but ultimately, what
you want electronically in your connection to the government is
the ability for them to do road user charges, tolls
on roads and everything you do in your car will
be done electronically. But I'll probably be well dead before
they get to that.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
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Speaker 1 (02:52):
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