Geoff Upson: Rodney Local Board member and roading campaigner on the potential introduction of widespread road user charges

Roading advocates say a sudden shift to widespread user charges would be relatively straightforward. 

Petrol cars could be hit with road user charges from 2027 under the Government's Revenue Action Plan.  

It's also exploring tolling for all new roads, including the Roads of National Significance.  

Auckland's Rodney Local Board member and roading campaigner Geoff Upson told Ryan Bridge it's a tried and true system used by diesel and electric vehicles.  

He says no matter the engine size, drivers will be paying per kilometre driven. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Government shifting all light vehicles off fuel excise and into
the road user charges system the rucks from as early
as twenty twenty seven. There's a bunch of other stuff
going on too, like more toll roads coming your way,
new toll roads, I should add, so it's not like
they're going to toll existing ones. And also council is
going to get more power to up parking fines. Jeff

(00:21):
Upson is the Rodney Local board member and road safety campaigner.
He's with US Live this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Jeff, morning, right, how are you doing? Good?

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Good, Good to have you on the show. What do
you reckon about everyone? It's an even playing field with
the rucks, I suppose.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Well, yeah, I mean it's a fear system. So what
it means is that it doesn't matter how big your
engine is, you're now going to be paying per kilometer traveled.
And this is a system that we've had for years,
for decades for all diesel vehicles, and obviously all the
battery powered cars have now moved to the system as well,

(00:56):
where where they pay a rate per kilometer t on
the roads. And and so this way we will be
able to collect the money will still be collected for
road maintenance, you know, fixing potholes. Unfortunately, when labor gets
back in, it'll be used for building speed bumps. Again,
I'm not I'm not looking forward to that part of it,
but in the meantime it will be used for road maintenance. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
What about the if you're filling up a lawn mower
or a boat or something at the petrol station, would
that be cheaper then?

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Well? Absolutely, yeah, because at the moment, if you're filling
up your boat or your law mower or you know,
your you're whatever you're filling up, you're paying road tax
on that. And so, so what what it means is
that once this shift happens, it'll be cheaper to mow
your lawns, It'll be cheaper to take the boat out fishing,
It'll be it'll be when quad bikes on the farm.

(01:51):
So so farming will then become a little bit cheaper,
which which will obviously help the the food production costs.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
I suppose the worry would be people who can't afford
to pay them. You know, I can't apport forward to
pay the road user charges.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, I mean this is something that I've been talking
about since March when Simon Brown originally announced it in
the government policy statement on Transport, and I have heard
from from certain people that it will be quite difficult,
you know, especially the lower socio economic areas. It'll be
quite difficult for people to manage manage their spending, you know,

(02:27):
because at the moment it's very simple. You know, you
fill up your car at the pump and everything is included.
Whereas this new system, it does mean that people will
have to pay for the petrol at the pump and
then they have to pay for their kilometers separately. I
have heard there's a bit of issue there, and I've
heard that people are going to try and steal from
the government, you know, which already happens with diesel vehicles,

(02:48):
where people wind their speedos back to try and get
away without paying the road user charges and things like that.
But I think, I mean that that is a reality
that is going to happen. But I think with modern
technology now it's a lot more difficult to wind your
speedo back. And also every time a vehicle goes in
for a war on a fitness that they'll be checking

(03:09):
the kilometers and if a vehicle is at arears, this
is it already happens with diesel vehicles, if a vehicle
is in areas the transport agency simply sends an invoice
for the different kilometer, So wherever you're overdue, yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
Kind of comes out in the wash. Jeff, thank you
for that. Jeff Upson, Rodney Local Board member, just the
guy that is to draw giant penises on the road
to identify where the potholes were so that they would
get fixed. He is now with the Rodney Local Board.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
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