We calculate and recommend heavy vehicle registration and road user charges to the Transport and Infrastructure Council (the Council) based on the pricing principles set by the Council and the Council of Australian Governments (COAG).
The principles are:
- full recovery of allocated infrastructure costs while minimising both the over and under recovery from any class of vehicle
- cost effectiveness of pricing instruments
- transparency
- the need to balance administrative simplicity, efficiency and equity (e.g. impact on regional and remote communities/access)
- the need to have regard to other pricing applications such as light vehicle charges, tolling and congestion
- ongoing cost recovery in aggregate
- the removal of cross subsidies between vehicle classes.
Annual adjustments
To ensure that heavy vehicle charges keep pace with road spending programs, an annual adjustment formula is applied in July to the previous year’s registration and road user charges. This formula is contained in the Heavy Vehicle Charges Model Law.
Determinations
In some years, we recommend a new set of charges to the Council based on updated methodologies and data. These recommendations are called ‘determinations’. A determination sets a new baseline upon which the annual adjustment formula can be applied to in future years.
Council decisions
2021 decisions
For 2021-22 heavy vehicle charges a 2.5 per cent increase was approved by Ministers on 30 March 2021 following public consultation
2020 decisions
On 22 November 2019, the Council identified a preference for charges to rise by 2.5 per cent in 2020–21 and 2.5 per cent in 2021–22, subject to consideration by governments where necessary.
The Council also directed the NTC to undertake a determination to review the method for calculating heavy vehicle charges.
Following public consultation, the Council decided on 5 May 2020 that heavy vehicle charges in 2020–21 would remain unchanged. The Council made this decision in light of the extraordinary contraction in economic activity and income expected for the June quarter, and in recognition that some operators are working hard under tight margins to keep essential goods moving during the COVID-19 pandemic, while others are experiencing a severe downturn in work.