The Herald has a nice juxtaposition of a photo of truck accident blocking the motorway with the headline that BIG trucks are on their way.
Up to 5000 trucks will be eligible to carry heavier loads on public highways from next month.
The Government is basically giving the trucking industry a handout with this. Road user charges weren’t increased in October for truck trailers, and the necessary reinforcement work for bridges etc. hasn’t been done. I’d also question the supposed economic benefits of $500m from the Ministry of Transport. Does this allow for the fact that trucking firms should pay 16 – 21% more per tonne in road user charges to use a bigger truck?
2 thoughts on “Big Trucks On Their Way”
I have taked some deap breaths now and am starting to relax.
My Angry gland gets going a bit easy sometimes.
Can someone please correct my ignorance and show how this will improve, our roads and community.
Positive notes: Grafton is now open. Well done, looks nice also I think.
I believe this is purely political. The Government collects HUGE revenue from road transport, namely trucks – the more trucks on the road and the bigger they are, the more tax they collect in road user charges. It has already been proved in many overseas studies that RAIL is cheaper, more efficient, cleaner and easier on the environment and safer than moving freight by road. We need a return to pre-deregulation of the transport industry. I am not saying take all the trucks off the roads. I am saying “move the majority of freight by rail and use trucks to take it from the railheads and depots to the final destination”. This would make the best use of trucks AND rail.