diesel milage

[lynn]

Can someone in N Z tell me what they are buying their milage for. I have been putting a 3 tonne sticker on my 1992 Bighorn and have been told by a couple of people that this should only be a 2 tonne sticker. Does it matter? What is the difference in price?

[geeves]

Is yours 3 or 5 door? 3 door is 1880kg 5 door is 2000kg Milage tax applies to grose weight so includes you your passengers and luggage. Unless you have the 3 door and never carry more than 120kg you should have a 3 tonne sticker. The cops dont check very often but the size of any fine more than makes up for this.
I have a 3 tonne sticker on my 89 bighorn

[JustinW]

Currently the price is the same for 2 tonne and 3 tonne, $32.15/1000km plus transaction fee. See www.ltsa.govt.nz/factsheets/38.html

[Vineboy]

Sorry guys I don't mean to sound stupid but what are you talking about? Is this a tax on driving?

[Witchdoctor]

correct me if im wrong in NZ you pay per K for you rego.

Dave

[geeves]

Its called road milage tax. In NZ diesel is cheaper than petrol because it only has gst and no road tax added. This is to make it simpler for farmers and others who are not useing the fuel on road. As a result all road milage done in a diesel vehical is taxed on a basis of weight and milage. On light vehicles this is based on the speedo but on HT you have to use an oddometer. There is provision to reclaim your off road milage but most people are to lazy to do this.
In England they doctor the fuel for off road use so they can tell if you use off road fuel in an on road car This is checked every warrent and as it stains the fuel system if you ever put the wrong fuel in you effectivly take the car permanantly off the road.
How does the Aussi system work or do farmers have to pay the fully taxed price for fuel.
All this is supposedly done to pay for road maintenance. One of the local beer companies has an advertising slogon to describe how well this works in practise.

[Vineboy]

Over here (Oz) we can clain a rebate from the Government for off road (farming, mining, forestry etc not wheeling ) It's worth 38c/l
so it's a good incentive to keep your books up to sctratch. It gets a bit tricky if you use a ute for a bit of on farm and off farm. You are supposed to keep a log book to get an idea. I can buy up to 10,000 of fuel some months so it can be a good way to save money ie put your claim in when you want to buy more toys ;D. Currently diesel here is worht about $1.45 retail.
Andrew

[geeves]

Over here diesel has just droped to $1.18 Petrol is $1.55 for 91
Milage tax based on the abouve figures and 10l/100km works out about 32c per liter. Once you take exchange rate into consideration thats pretty much the same price. Our system has less incentive though to drive ecconomicaly although the bighorn still costs less for fuel and milage than the work corolla does for just petrol. Not much in it though

[caffa]

Thats true that its pretty much the same but our system sounds much better ... taxing on weight and mileage just sounds all wrong ... at the onset, it sounds like it is more confusing for the poor old farmer than just giving him a rebate ey ...

[geeves]

Very easy for the farmer as long as they never drive on road. ie tractor etc. They dont have to do anything or pay anything.
For the rest of us though it adds confusion. Both systems work and niether will be changing any time soon so might as well live with it

[lynn]

Thanks for the info I now understand that i should be carrying a 3 tonne sticker. And yes you are right same price now 1-3 tonne. I think that stinks but oh well.

[JustinW]

Historically this system was developed before there were many diesel light vehicles on NZ roads. There are different vehicle classes based on axle configuration. The amount each class/weight combination pays is based on the amount of pavement (road structure) life they consume, with a small additional factor for axle group combinations that do higher direct surfacing damage such as a non steering 4 axle group on the back of a semi trailer. This is a fairly fair system as the heavier axle loaded vehicles pay more. For the technically minded - the amount of pavement life consumed is based on weight and is a power of four relationship. In other words if you double and axle load you increase the pavement life consumed by a factor of sixteen (2 to the power of 4 = 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 16) Based on this a 1 ton axle (ie a 2 ton vehicle) is equivalent to 0.02% of a standard 8 ton axle and a 1.5 ton axle (ie a 2 ton vehicle) is equivalent to 0.12% of a standard 8 ton axle. Therefore it doesn't really make much difference if they charge the same for 1,2 and 3 ton vehicles. The NZ Road Transport Association campaigned for may years to get all RUCs put into roading, this has been the case for many (10+) years. More and more petrol tax and registration fees are going into roading as well (if the speech I had to listen to by the Minister of Transport on Wednesday is anything to go by).

[geeves]

Did you know the minister of transport drinks tui and we all know the advertising slogan.
I supose the system does work but does nothing to promote fuel efficiancy. Ie by my figures earlier useing my wagon mileage works out at 35 cents a liter but if I bought a 1600 Pugot diesel that gets 3 times the ecconomy then this would end up as $1.05 a liter or more than the diesel itself.
dont worry Im not buying a pugot even if it was spelt right