Road Cost Recovery.

["Michael Walker" <walker@hotkey.net.au>]

Recently, there have been many threads regarding full road cost recovery
from trucks which typically are subsidised by the tax payer as opposed to
rail which is expected to operate at full cost recovery. Reading through
Victorian law tonight in relation to another post, I found an interesting
law. It can be found in the Transport Act 1983 under Schedule 5 Section 14:
14. Recovery of expenses of repairing damage caused by traffic

Sch. 5 cl. 14(1) amended by Nos 44/1989 s. 40(Sch. 1 item 30(a)(c)), 57/1989
s. 3(Sch. item 202.17).

(1) Where it appears to the Roads Corporation that extraordinary expenses
have been incurred by that Corporation in repairing any road by reason of
the damage caused by a particular vehicle passing along the road the Roads
Corporation may recover before the Magistrates' Court or in any court of
competent jurisdiction from any person who caused that vehicle to pass along
the road the amount of such expenses as may be proved to the satisfaction of
the court to have been incurred by that Corporation by reason of the damage
arising from that vehicle.

Sch. 5 cl. 14(2) amended by No. 44/1989 s. 40(Sch. 1 item 30(a)).

(2) Any person against whom expenses are or may be recoverable under this
clause may enter into an agreement with the Roads Corporation for the
payment to it of a composition in respect of those expenses and thereupon
the person paying that composition shall not be subject to any proceedings
under this clause in respect of those expenses.

Could this possibly mean that truck drivers causing excessive damage can be
taken to court or come to an out of court agreement with Vicroads? Following
on, it could be argued many/most large trucks excessively damage the roads
in normal use. How many of these are taken to court? Precious few I bet.
How does one report this 'excessive damage'?  Perhaps this could be used to
tip the balance a little more in favour of rail which can carry heavy loads
without excessive damage to roads we all pay for.

What do others think?