Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
The government wants to move the entire vehicle fleet to paying road-user-charges - but how would this work, and when will it happen?
In its transport plan, out last month, the government confirmed it wants to shift from raising road transport funds, via excise taxes on fuel to a system where all vehicle owners pay the Transport Agency directly for the kilometres they travel - a system that diesel vehicles, and from this year, electric vehicles, already use.
Almost three quarters of the entire vehicle fleet - more than 3.5 million vehicles are paying fuel excise duty and not RUCs.
However, there are challenges to upgrading the technology and concerns around the privacy implications of the data collected.
They have already caused a Cabinet paper on the issue to slip by months and Transport Minister Simeon Brown wants advice on a RUC system that will be consumer friendly.
The Minister had wanted to get a paper to Cabinet about the middle of this year but that has moved to later this year.
Mark Stockdale principal technical advisor at the Motor Industry Association and Terry Collins, principal adviser in the transport policy and advocacy team at the Automobile Association, both join Kathryn for a discussion on the challenges to a universal RUC system.
