This week Transport Minister Chris Bishop announced that fuel excise duty will be replaced by electronic Road User Charges and that the Government will have enabling legislation passed in 2026.
You can read the Ministers full statement here:
And media coverage on our response:
Members may react with a “so what we already pay RUC” response but as always there is a lot more in this announcement than the headline.
NRC has been advocating for reform to the system that supports RUC for some time. Members are operating in what is still a paper based regulatory environment that was designed in the 1970’s.
The industry has changed a bit since 1977 and it is no surprise that a system that worked well then is struggling to keep up now with the demands of a 24/7 industry.
RUC as a method of collecting the revenue needed for road transport infrastructure is still the best method available. It charges based on the impact that each RUC type has in a much fairer way than a blunt fuel tax which puts New Zealand in a great position to move away from a reliance on petrol tax.
Key legislative changes the Government is progressing include:
- Removing the requirement to carry or display RUC licences, allowing for digital records instead.
- Enabling the use of a broader range of electronic RUC devices, including those already built into many modern vehicles.
- Supporting flexible payment models such as post-pay and monthly billing.
- Separating NZTA’s roles as both RUC regulator and retailer to foster fairer competition.
- Allowing bundling of other road charges like tolls and time of used based pricing into a single, easy payment.
These legislative changes will allow NZTA to evolve the back-end infrastructure and NRC will be pushing for changes that enable members to purchase what they need when they need it in the most efficient and cost-effective way. The fact that to change a RUC type in 2025 still requires paper forms and a person to manually update a system is just one example of low hanging fruit that these changes will enable.
Make no mistake none of these changes will remove the need to increase RUC charges. The increases are coming from 2027 and it has been well signalled that the gap between revenue in and cost out is going to close by increasing RUC and FED.
NRC will continue to push that every dollar collected from members is spent on better quality roads and that wasteful spending is eliminated.
As always if you have any questions get in touch with one of our team.
