Takitimu Drive, which comprised $9.9m of the total $18.5m toll road payments from Tauranga motorists in the first 10 months of last year. Photo / Kiri Gillespie
Takitimu Drive, which comprised $9.9m of the total $18.5m toll road payments from Tauranga motorists in the first 10 months of last year. Photo / Kiri Gillespie
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency has been accused of not doing enough to chase $855,000 in outstanding Tauranga toll road payments.
Tauranga MP Simon Bridges, National's finance spokesman, says it's "plain wrong" and "unfair" that the agency is not pursuing legal action to recover the unpaid tolls.
Figures obtained underthe Official Information Act showed Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency collected more than $18.5 million from Tauranga motorists in the first 10 months of last year. This consisted of $9.868m from Takitimu Drive, formerly known as Route K, and $8.663m from Tauranga Eastern Link.
The figure was up 14 per cent on the $16.246m collected in 2020. Of that $8.489m came from drivers using Takitimu Drive and $7.757m from Tauranga Eastern Link.
In 2019, the agency collected $16.797m — $8.654m from Takitimu Drive and $8.143m from Tauranga Eastern Link.
However, $855,000 from those three years remains unpaid, including $228,000 from last year.
The figures also revealed the agency refunded $1290 in 317 transactions, mostly due to "plate validation error" - meaning the agency charged the wrong vehicle owners.
Tauranga Eastern Link pictured on the first sunrise of operation in 2015. Photo / NZME
Asked how often Waka Kotahi sought legal proceedings to pursue arrears, senior manager of financial operations Fiona Buckner said it had not.
Commuter Matthew Gill said the outstanding payments were "shocking" and a "massive concern".
"Especially as someone who always pays and would like to see the end of Tauranga having two-thirds of the country's toll roads."
New Zealand's only other toll road is the Auckland Northern Gateway.
Gill lives at The Lakes and spends about $25 a week on the Takitimu Drive toll.
The electrician runs his own business and uses the route a lot as a "time saver".
However, during peak time he found little benefit due to backed-up traffic from State Highway 29 "which can go from Ruahihi dam past the Maungatapu roundabout".
Gill said the Takitimu Drive toll should be removed and said the road was of a much lower standard than the other toll roads.
"Visibility and road drainage during bad weather, I find terrible," he said.
Tauranga MP Simon Bridges said he appreciated not everyone was excited about the toll roads but they were the price of having some of the best and newest roads in Tauranga.
Tauranga MP Simon Bridges at the electronic tolling mechanism in 2015. Photo / NZME
Bridges, who opened the Tauranga Eastern Link in 2015 as then Transport Minister, said the Government should do more to collect unpaid fines.
While legal pursuits could become costly, not chasing the outstanding payments would likely cost more in the long run - especially if more people chose not to pay, he said.
"Secondly, it sends the wrong message. Not paying is plain wrong. It's unfair to those who play by the rules and pay."
Bridges likened the toll roads to a tax: "No one wants to pay but ... Tauranga needed them. We were a small place that got bigger."
Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand chief executive Nick Leggett said the route from Takitimu Drive to the Port of Tauranga was used "constantly and continuously by trucking operators".
Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand was formerly known as the Road Transport Forum and is the body charged with promoting and advocating for trucking operators.
Leggett said the industry was happy to pay the toll, which was usually passed on to the customer anyway, and all other users should be doing likewise.
"The industry would have an expectation that those tolls should be collected ... somebody pays at the end of the day."
Leggett said the industry would always look for the most direct route to its destination and this was why toll roads were essential to business - despite the cost for each trip.
"Frankly, we want to see more of these [toll roads] in the country. They are absolutely worth paying a toll if you get a faster, more reliable, safer route. It pays dividends for professional drivers.
Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand chief executive Nick Leggett. Photo / NZME
"The previous most direct route involved something like 12 roundabouts, so Route K is fantastic for the industry. The eastern arterial [Tauranga Eastern Link] is also used by truckies but that's a ... supremely good road."
The toll on the Tauranga Eastern Link was used to leverage loans, enabling the road to be built faster. Now the revenue collected from Tauranga Eastern Link is used to repay those loans.
In response to the concerns raised, transport agency senior manager of commercial licensing and revenue Sam du Fresne said the organisation had previously taken legal action to pursue outstanding tolls on the Northern Gateway "and will continue to do so when it is appropriate".
Anyone who did not pay their debt is at risk of receiving a court order to pay in full and companies without arrangement to pay their debt "may be default credit listed".
"During 2009, public were consulted on whether they supported Tauranga Eastern Link being a toll road so construction could start up to 10 years earlier. Tolling received significant community support."
There were free alternative routes for people who don't want to pay a toll, du Fresne said.
The agency bought Takitimu Drive from Tauranga City Council in 2015 and made it a State Highway. The toll's purpose was to repay the National Land Transport Fund.
The estimated year the debt will be fully paid for each of the toll roads, is 2044 for the Tauranga Eastern Link and 2041 for Takitimu Drive - including the $65m paid to council plus recovered opportunity costs.
