| Road charge shift may hit parcels
The cost of sending parcels is set to rise after changes to the road-user charges take effect in August that courier companies say will unfairly affect them.
Fastway Couriers chief executive Bruce Speers said the changes would unfairly affect the courier industry and could lead to price increases.
Speers said courier companies used large trucks to move packages between centres, but the freight they carried was greater in volume but lighter than the total carrying capacity of the vehicle.
"There will be a financial reward for maximising your payload whenever you can, and that's a good thing in terms of the efficiency of the economy.
But competitors carrying the same varieties of goods would face the same cost increase. " .
He estimated that Fastway's road-user charges bill for its 24 linehaul trucks would increase by up to a quarter a year.
Freightways managing director Dean Bracewell said it was inevitable that the proposed rules would increase costs for truck operators who did not load vehicles to the maximum allowable weight.
Freightways owns several courier brands, including New Zealand Couriers, Sub 60 and Poste Haste.
"Courier companies . .
But courier freight companies say carriers of lighter, but higher volume loads will pay more per kilogram than a truck carrying a heavy load.
"Our trucks will be assessed on the same basis as heavy logging vehicles.
The current system was a long-standing model that worked.
"The weight is what damages the road, so why should heavier stuff carry a lower RUC cost [per kilogram] than lighter stuff? It just doesn't make any sense.
However, Road Transport Forum boss Shirley said the old system, which had been in place since 1978, had a high compliance cost and was open to exploitation.
He agreed the new system would favour trucks carrying heavy goods while those using the same truck with a lighter load would pay more.
Road-user charges will be based on the maximum weight a truck can carry regardless of its load, rather than the weight of the vehicle on each trip.
Bracewell estimated the change would cost Freightways an extra $1 million a year "which would need to be passed on to customers at a time when they're able to least afford it". |
Friday, 8 June 2012
Road charge shift may hit parcels
