The road freight industry is supportive of the government’s proposed changes to planning and funding new roading says Ken Shirley, CEO of the Road Transport Forum.
“It’s a much needed shake up which will help ensure that the money collected from all road users is spent to deliver the maximum return for each dollar spent.
The transport agency receives funding via road user charges, fuel taxes, vehicle registration and license fees. This week saw Gerry Brownlee amend the Land Transport Management Act to remove the $250 million cap the agency can borrow in order to manage cash-flow and short-term shortages.
This would allow borrowing to fund future land transport projects and would be subject to the approval of the minister of transport, and the minister of finance.
“Focusing on effectiveness and efficiency in public spending on land transport will bring a much needed clarity to funding decisions,” says Shirley.
“The Government says its changes will make the act simpler, clearer, easier to understand and interpret, reduce compliance costs and simplify processes.
“Combined with the proposed changes to both regional and central government land transport planning, the outcome should be a significant reduction of red tape and, hopefully, much faster decision making. The current planning processes can be cumbersome and take far too long.
“Enabling borrowing to fund major projects is also a sensible move. Road users are presently suffering from the consequence of years of under investment which means key routes really aren’t up to an acceptable standard.
“At present the full cost of projects that communities and users will benefit from for decades are being met by road users now. Borrowing will help ensure that future generations will help pay the capital costs as well as for maintenance and renewal. That’s the way virtually all other major capital works are funded.”
Shirley believes the road freight industry will be willing to pay tolls for new routes providing the charges make economic sense.
“The trucking industry fully accepts that it must meet its fair share of roading expenditure. All New Zealanders are paying now for an inadequate roading network through freight costs which are higher than they might otherwise be.
“We can’t wish the same problems on to the next generation. The Government’s proposals open up the opportunity to build an efficient roading network capable of meeting future needs.”
However, the Forum says that the Government is right to remove the regional fuel tax provisions.
“These would impose different costs on operators depending on where they mainly worked and could be sought by regional governments to build pet projects which really aren’t good investments,” says Shirley.
