Re: Road Cost Recovery.

[pcc@ocean.com.au (Les Brown)]

"Michael Walker" <walker@hotkey.net.au> wrote in aus.rail:

>(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?

It's worse than that and getting much worse. 

Typically, the government has been recovering costs caused by trucks
through taxes on fuel, but with more efficient diesels, trucks are
able to haul more for less fuel, therefore the cost recovery for the
damage caused by heavy haulers has been getting progressively less and
less. More so, I imagine, with B-Doubles and now B-Triples.

A B-Triple can haul 50% more than a B-Double but cost recovery is not
50% more, either in fuel tax or registration fees.

Recently the Federal Government in their budget have promised $250 mil
over the next four years to be spent on upgrading rail lines. This
does not equal the estimated $80 mil per year that rail pays in diesel
fuel taxes, if only it did!

I would love to see an accurate road cost statement that includes all
the taxes and registration fees versus total expenditure on road
construction and maintenance for the whole of Australia. Also to be
included should be the proportion of costs due to trucks and buses.

And don't forget the "costs" to environment and road trauma caused by
the heavy haulers.

Maybe we could more accurately assess just how much of a "profit" our
roads actually make? That could make rail losses appear less of a loss
and more of a gain for the nation.

Les Brown