KEY POINTS:
Motorists using Auckland's new Northern Gateway motorway will be charged more than double the toll of $2 a car trip if they let more than three days go by before paying up.
Anyone assuming they can wait for a bill in the post will, after 72 hours of using the $365 million road due to open on Sunday between Orewa and Puhoi, be liable for an extra administration fee of $2.20.
That means car owners will be charged $4.20 for each unpaid one-way trip along the 7.5km route, and freight firms $6.20, which will include a toll of $4 for heavy vehicles.
But the sting for toll-dodgers could have been worse, as the Transport Agency was until last month considering an administration fee of $5.
A decision to more than halve that followed the Cabinet's refusal to endorse a recommended $60 infringement fee for anyone ignoring a reminder notice to pay the tolls for more than 28 days.
The amount approved by the Government has been set instead at $40, which will be on top of the initial toll and administration charges.
Transport Agency access and use group manager Ian Gordon said his organisation set the lower administration fee of $2.20 after extensive modelling to predict the true administration cost of mailing out unpaid toll notices.
The agency is relying on tolls to repay within 35 years a loan for half the road's price.
A spokeswoman for Transport Minister Steven Joyce said he wanted to ensure the administration fee "was purely about recovery of costs and not punitive" and asked officials to set the amount accordingly.
Mr Gordon also indicated that the agency was considering whether it was possible within the constraints of the toll system's operating software to introduce a lower financial threshold for light users of the new road than a minimum $44 set-up amount now required for those opening accounts by credit card or direct debits from banks.
Some Herald readers have criticised the amount as a disincentive against opening accounts rather than using the toll-road's freephone number 0800 402020 to settle by credit card each time they use the road, or to stop at kiosks at either end of it to pay by cash.
Tolls for each trip will be deducted from the set-up amount, which will be automatically topped up once it falls to $24 for a single vehicle, protecting heavy users from slipping into the red.
www.tollroad.govt.nz
