the govenment has been consulting with the truckies about this for a long time and had promised to look at changing the law in regard to licensing. however the government sprung this on the truckies without notice when they were "suppose" to be consulting with the very poeple. is this honest behaviour, i don't think so.
the transport ministers own modeling shows that the heavy vehicles already pay there fare share of road users. here all vehicles over 3ton pay road users including petrol powered vehicles. as weights increase so do the charges, this is fair. heavier vehicles already pay a lot more for there road user charges here then the normal cars do, this is fair, this latest increase, without notification isn't fair (andthey increased it for all diesel users, not just the heavy vehicles, it's just that there's went up a lot).
no, there isn;t ahuge issue with overlaoding anymore here, ther are weight bridges all over the the place and most long hall trucks will get checked at some stage ofthere journey. the have also recently increased axle limits to similar rates as you ahve in aussie. there is also a police unit that just deals with heavy vehicles and they can spot check any vehicle any where
this isn't just about the RUC,they are just the last straw that broke the camels back. the poeple have had enough ofthe increasing prices that the consumers pay, we had what has been effectionatly called the cheese block budget this year, thats how big the tax cuts are for middle to higher wage earners is. about $20pw if oyu earn 60k p/a. yet they increase taxes/levies in other areas that are twice what we get back so it's like one step forward and 2 steps backward for the consumer, then the reserve bank bitches about the tax cuts influencing inflation so it maintains interest rates (the highest in the western world) etc etc etc. all this with a economy that is looking at a technical recession. the other thing you gotta remeber is that NZ is a free market economy, there are no subsidies for any industy, our economy is to small to influency any other economy so we are sitting duck to what is happening around the world
there has to be some point where the people stand up and counted. the current govenment is sure to loose the upcoming election in november, they have just shot themselves in the foot with this latest increase.
the government has agreed to start a new working group to look at the issues again. although i beleive that this is only being done as "lip service" it's a wait and see. the truckies have already stated that unless there is some progress that there will be another protest. if that is the case i will be out there supporting em.