MOTOR REGULATIONS

Southland Times, Issue 21770, 27 July 1932, Page 8

MOTOR REGULATIONS

HEAVY TRAFFIC FEES. THE FARMER’S POSITION. Tire following letter dealing with heavy traffic fees was before the City Council last evening from the Transport Commissioner: Representations have been made to the Government that heavy motor vehicles owned by farmers and used solely for the transport of the individual farmer’s produce and supplies be exempted from the payment of heavy traffic fees. The reasons advanced in favour of the exemption are as follows :— (1) Tire farmer’s lorry does a very small annual mileage on the roads as compared with the mileage done by the commercial truck, and the burden of the heavy traffic fee per mile is therefore relatively much higher. (2) The farmer is already paying heavy rates for roading purposes, and should not be called upon to pay a second time through these fees. (3) If the farmer has to continue to pay these fees, many of them will replace their lorries with horse-drawn vehicles, which, with their steel tyres, will do considerably more damage to dustless surfaced roads than will the pneumatic tyred motor lorries. (4) The present low price of the primary products makes it essential that the farmer’s cost be reduced as much as possible, and the heavy traffic fee is considered particularly burdensome to the primary producer who runs his own lorry. In view of the fact that the heavy traffic fees are collected and expended by the road control authorities, the Minister has decided that the representations made should be placed before all local bodies, in order that he may be guided by their views when considering this matter. Excluding passenger vehicles, there are 12,000 trucks in the Dominion on which heavy traffic fees are paid, and the total fees in respect of these trucks amount to approximately £150,000. The table hereunder shows the amounts paid by the truck operators according to occupations, and is based on figures supplied by the Post and Telegraph Department:— £ Farmers 30,000 Carriers 35,000 Contractors 15,000 Merchants 15,000 Miscellaneous 55,000 Total £150,000 From these figures it will be seen that if effect is given to the representations made, the revenue for local bodies for road maintenance purposes may be reduced by £30,000, and this would mean that either rates would have to be increased at the expense of all the ratepayers to make good this amount, or the expenditure on road maintenance would have to be reduced by £30,000. In view of the limited amount of money available for this purpose already, the second course would be most undesirable, and possibly impracticable. Another point which should be borne in mind is that if farmers receive exemption from these fees on account of the small annual road mileage of their trucks, numerous other operators, such as market gardeners, will also claim exemption for the same reason, and it appears that once this fee is based on the road usage instead of a flat schedule, the revenue from this taxation will be seriously reduced. I should be pleased to have the views of your council on these representations, as soon as possible, in order that the matter may be placed before the Minister. The letter was referred to the Works Committee.