RUCs to apply to all vehicles (incl EVs), replacing road user tax on petrol

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › RUCs to apply to all vehicles (incl EVs), replacing road user tax on petrol

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2122 posts

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#3400451 6-Aug-2025 19:37

Scott3:

e-bikes (which have a 300W limit in NZ) are currently declared not to be a motor vehicle. I don't see this changing.

The whole topic of how to deal with electric personable

E-Bikes (actual mountain bike ones) are in a really grey area legally. Technically not allowed on the road, not allowed on the footpath. Not really a problem until something happens I guess (IE car vs bike)

As for actual bikes and RUCS it sort of pops up every now and then. People talk about licensing and registration and I just ask how they'll do this for a 7 year old kid riding to school..

I have over a dozen bikes and ride maybe 2000kms a year, almost exclusively off road and people say I need to pay my way. At home we have three cars and one motorbike and I drive 50,000kms per year 😂

k1w1k1d

1530 posts

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#3400462 6-Aug-2025 20:27

I am probably in support of this but have some reservations.

Paying method needs to be simple and easily accessible for all vehicle types and sizes etc. Petrol pumps and charging stations have option to pay RUC?

Need to be able to buy in lower distances than the current 1000km for those with limited finances.

More weight bands than current 3500kg, 6000kg, 9000kg. Currently a Swift would pay the same rate as a Ranger.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out.

MadEngineer

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#3400463 6-Aug-2025 20:30

Just checked my wife's old car that we sold years ago. Still going strong stuck at 299999 which is the maximum its odo can read

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gzt

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#3400480 6-Aug-2025 22:12

An interview said some newer cars have built in devices that will already comply with the new legislation. What cars have that thing and what is it that called and what is the existing standard called if there is one.

I'm aware some manufacturers build telemetry into their cars and that is a different thing.

Scott3

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#3400482 6-Aug-2025 22:24

mudguard:

Scott3:

e-bikes (which have a 300W limit in NZ) are currently declared not to be a motor vehicle. I don't see this changing.

The whole topic of how to deal with electric personable

E-Bikes (actual mountain bike ones) are in a really grey area legally. Technically not allowed on the road, not allowed on the footpath. Not really a problem until something happens I guess (IE car vs bike)

As for actual bikes and RUCS it sort of pops up every now and then. People talk about licensing and registration and I just ask how they'll do this for a 7 year old kid riding to school..

I have over a dozen bikes and ride maybe 2000kms a year, almost exclusively off road and people say I need to pay my way. At home we have three cars and one motorbike and I drive 50,000kms per year 😂

There is not really any grey.

Under 300W, it is declared not to be a motor vehicle, and providing it meets the other requirements to be used on the road, you are good to go on for riding on the road. (During daytime, this is just "good" front and rear brakes, and a rear reflector. Lights and more reflectors are required at night)

If over 300W, it's becomes an unregistered motor vehicle, illegal to use both on roads and footpaths.... Currently there seems to be zero enforcement of this, but this is a police choice, not a lack of clarity of the law.

Scott3

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#3400483 6-Aug-2025 22:31

k1w1k1d:

I am probably in support of this but have some reservations.

Paying method needs to be simple and easily accessible for all vehicle types and sizes etc. Petrol pumps and charging stations have option to pay RUC?

Need to be able to buy in lower distances than the current 1000km for those with limited finances.

More weight bands than current 3500kg, 6000kg, 9000kg. Currently a Swift would pay the same rate as a Ranger.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Link of todays stuff is now three pages deep, so I will post again:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360782053/petrol-tax-getting-scrapped-road-user-charges-expand-all-vehicles-2027

Yip, it is going to be easier to pay. "As easy as paying for netflix", so I assume more online than in person. They are going to give third parties free reign, so yeah, if petrol stations & EV charging stations want to offer RUC's they can, along with vehicle brands themselves.

The 1000km minimum is going.

No talk of changing the weight bands that I have seen. As discussed at length in this massive thread, in terms or road consumption it is fair that a swift pays the same as a ranger. They both do negligible damage to the road (a truck does thousands of times more damage than either), and when following distances are considered, both occupy about the same space on the road.

Scott3

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#3400484 6-Aug-2025 22:41

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360783195/transport-minister-chris-bishop-tells-threenews-petrol-tax-switch-will-help-kiwis-financially

"speaking to ThreeNews, Bishop said it was possible the new form of paying road user charges (RUCs) would be through an app, where Kiwis could log in and pay what they owed at the end of each month."

Sounds like a move from a pre-pay to post pay system.

“Actually, from a cash flow point of view, it’ll help people,” - from a strictly technical point of view this is valid, moving from a prepaid FED's to postpaid RUC's, is technically better for cash flow. But it does mean a months worth of charges turning up all at once (and the manual intervention required to enter the odo into the app so it can collect the data). In general prepay is nicer for people with tight finances, as there is no risk of debt they cannot pay.

The article headline is: "Transport Minister Chris Bishop tells ThreeNews petrol tax switch will ‘help’ Kiwis financially" I think this is a misquote of the above. there is a big difference between being helping cash flow, and helping financially.

"The issue we’ve got is that as cars get more fuel efficient and as hybrids come on... the revenue base of the National Land Transport Fund is eroding, and that means there is less money to pay for new roads and to maintain the roads we’ve already got.”

So it is clear the point of the change is to raise more revenue, which I think is fair enough given our road system is not paying for itself at the moment. But you can't hide that raising more revenue will cost motorists more...

They should keep pushing the message that the current system is regressive, with those who can only afford old inefficient cars paying more than those that can afford new hybrids...

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Handle9

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#3400486 7-Aug-2025 00:30

I'd guess there will multiple methods to pay for RUCs, just as there is with telcos or power.

If you have good credit and know how to manage your money you'll probably go for a post paid solution while if you are someone living on a tight budget pre-paid would make more sense for you.

I can't see it being one size fits all as that isn't how any other mass market utility works.

insane

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#3400488 7-Aug-2025 03:01

Handle9:

I'd guess there will multiple methods to pay for RUCs, just as there is with telcos or power.

If you have good credit and know how to manage your money you'll probably go for a post paid solution while if you are someone living on a tight budget pre-paid would make more sense for you.

I can't see it being one size fits all as that isn't how any other mass market utility works.

They may be underestimating how some users simply don't care that their licences and RUC lapse, or that they are uninsured. So payment compliance could be tricky.

Right now unpaid RUCs get caught at WOFs, but if you skip getting a WOF you'd likely never get caught until you sell you legally sell your vehicle? And if you don't care about Not being insured then there's little incentive to get a WOF.

We'd almost be relying on the police to impound vehicles at road stops.

ODO hacking is going to become a serious industry, more so than it already is.

The idea of prepay, postpay and spot pricing does sound interesting though. I wonder if they would allow RUC aggregators to form and a wholesale market.

Goosey

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#3400492 7-Aug-2025 07:05

Skim read posts… so not sure if this is covered.

for corporate fleets and small business fleets that operate with fuel cards, I do hope the government can accept the monthly fuel statement data as proof of kilometres…. Otherwise an administrative hassle and extra cost for business to organise.

im also concerned that any data collection may force small business and large business to fit E Road or similar vehicles…thus adding more cost, more admin, more hassle (including the pesky monitoring of telemetrics which will become an HR nightmare when employers start to use that as an excuse for anything and everything). Depends on the situations though.

TDLR - hope fuel card companies can innovate and provide the monthly distance data so business can quickly and easily submit.

SaltyNZ

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2degrees

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#3400493 7-Aug-2025 07:09

Handle9:

I'd guess there will multiple methods to pay for RUCs, just as there is with telcos or power.

If you have good credit and know how to manage your money you'll probably go for a post paid solution while if you are someone living on a tight budget pre-paid would make more sense for you.

I can't see it being one size fits all as that isn't how any other mass market utility works.

If a private company can do 1000km of RUCs for less than $12 a pop in fees then it's a win in my book.

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nickb800

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#3400497 7-Aug-2025 07:53

Goosey:

Skim read posts… so not sure if this is covered.

for corporate fleets and small business fleets that operate with fuel cards, I do hope the government can accept the monthly fuel statement data as proof of kilometres…. Otherwise an administrative hassle and extra cost for business to organise.

im also concerned that any data collection may force small business and large business to fit E Road or similar vehicles…thus adding more cost, more admin, more hassle (including the pesky monitoring of telemetrics which will become an HR nightmare when employers start to use that as an excuse for anything and everything). Depends on the situations though.

TDLR - hope fuel card companies can innovate and provide the monthly distance data so business can quickly and easily submit.

The idea is an eroad type device for all vehicles eventually, because the Government wants to roll up RUCs, time of use charges (e.g. Auckland Harbour Bridge at 8am on a weekday) and toll roads into a single system, and you can't do that with an odometer alone. The Minister alluded to there being quite obtuse regulation which makes eRoad devices more complex/expensive than they need to be - so step one is sort out the regulation, step 2 is see what devices the private sector can offer.

For example, eroad devices have a screen to display RUCs so that Police and others can visually see if the RUCs are up to date. A change of regulation might mean a screen is no longer required, with a central system for police to search a number plate to see if the RUCs are compliant.

For fleet owners, they will almost certainly just get a single bill at the end of the month for all RUCs, tolls and time of use charges across their fleet, once we get to the end of this rollout.

PolicyGuy

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#3400498 7-Aug-2025 08:00

SaltyNZ:

If a private company can do 1000km of RUCs for less than $12 a pop in fees then it's a win in my book.

If the system is electronic, with no label to create, print and post, presumably the transaction cost should be way, waaay down. If you do it yourself on an NZTA app, or online through an NZTA web portal, it should surely be in the $0.50 to $1.00 range

johno1234

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#3400499 7-Aug-2025 08:05

IMHO everything about this change will be brilliant….

Except for that group in society who don’t comply with registrations, WoFs, dog licences, paying fines and so on. Non payment of RUCs will go into that pile. This group cannot avoid tax on their petrol currently. Will this be significant in the road funding scheme of things? I have no idea.
Not paying road tax on petrol used in my boat will be nice.

davidcole

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#3400503 7-Aug-2025 08:28

PolicyGuy:

SaltyNZ:

If a private company can do 1000km of RUCs for less than $12 a pop in fees then it's a win in my book.

If the system is electronic, with no label to create, print and post, presumably the transaction cost should be way, waaay down. If you do it yourself on an NZTA app, or online through an NZTA web portal, it should surely be in the $0.50 to $1.00 range

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you've been alive for x years and you've seen this happen exactly how many times?

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