High Productivity Vehicles - the 50 tonne Proposal
From the list of impending rule changes coming from the New Zealand Transport Agency, the long-talked about 50 tonne combination mass legislation is expected to be introduced late 2009.
This increased mass limit is touted as being for “high productivity vehicles”.
I wondered what effect this increase might have on the Road User Charges that applicable vehicles would incur, on the basis that no alterations are envisaged to the Dimensions and Mass Rule other than the maximum permitted combination mass - that is, axle and group ratings continue unchanged.
This effectively means that the only rigs that may run at 50 tonne are:
3-axle rigid truck and 4-axle full trailer
4-axle rigid truck and 4-axle full trailer
3-axle tractor unit and 5-axle B-train
The other combinations - including a 4-axle tractor unit with quad semi trailer - are ruled out as axle group ratings will be exceeded.
Using the estimated weights in the following tables and the current Road User Charges, the calculations for each combination of RUC cost per tonne payload show an interesting trend - every one of them gives an increased RUC cost per tonne, of 16-21%.
So much for “high productivity”!
What this tells us is that there will have to be rather more changes than just the Gross Combination Mass - the Road User Charge scale of fees, for one!
Example 1 - 3 axle truck, 4 axle full trailer
44 tonne GCM Truck Trailer Combination
Tare (tonne) 9.0 6.5 14.0
Payload (tonne) 12.0 16.5 30.0
Gross (tonne) 21.0 23.0 44.0
RUC $369.93 $184.80 $554.73
$ / tonne Payload $19.46
50 tonne GCM Truck Trailer Combination
Tare 9.0 6.5 15.5
Payload 13.0 23.0 34.5
Gross 22.0 28.0 50.0
RUC $432.14 $349.47 $781.61
$ / tonne Payload $22.66 (+16%)
Example 2 - 4 axle truck, 4 axle full trailer
44 tonne GCM Truck Trailer Combination
Tare 10.5 6.5 17.0
Payload 11.5 15.5 27.0
Gross 22.0 22.0 44.0
RUC $237.00 $162.42 $399.42
$ / tonne Payload $14.79
50 tonne GCM Truck Trailer Combination
Tare 10.5 6.5 17.0
Payload 14.5 18.5 33.0
Gross 25.0 25.0 50.0
RUC $348.71 $240.25 $588.96
$ / tonne Payload $17.85 (+21%)
Example 3 - 3 axle tractor, 5 axle B-train
44 tonne GCM Tractor 1st Trailer 2nd Trailer Combination
Tare 8.0 5.5 5.0 18.5
Payload 9.0 9.5 7.0 25.5
Gross 17.0 15.0 12.0 44.0
RUC $192.99 $93.23 $103.09 $389.31
$ / tonne Payload $15.27
50 tonne GCM Tractor 1st Trailer 2nd Trailer Combination
Tare 8.0 5.5 5.0 18.5
Payload 11.0 11.5 9.0 31.5
Gross 19.0 17.0 14.0 50.0
RUC $268.49 $127.22 $172.63 $568.34
$ / tonne Payload $18.04 (+18%)
Last 5 posts by Andrew
- NZS4711 & 4703 - MOVING TO AS/NZS2980 - 11th May, 2010
- Trailer : Truck Mass Ratio and Simple Trailers - 8th June, 2009
- One of the Perks for Buying NZ-Made - 24th March, 2009
