KEY POINTS:
The Government and the trucking industry have agreed to a review on how road user charges are allocated and collected.
Transport Minister Annette King met Road Transport Forum Tony Friedlander today in the wake of recent protests by truck drivers of increased road user charges.
The two said in a press statement said the independent review would be completed by early next year and would feed into a wider review of the way land transport is funded in the future.
It would look at the current model for allocating the costs of maintaining roads and building new ones, and for reviewing the way these charges are collected.
"The independent review will fully involve stakeholders from the transport sector generally. The wider review will involve a much broader range of stakeholders," Ms King said.
The terms of reference will be settled over the next few days.
Angry truck drivers created traffic jams earlier this month when they protested about road user charges.
The industry had two complaints - the charges were raised just as they are grappling with rocketing fuel prices, and the fact that Ms King did not give them notice of the increase.
Ms King's justification for the surprise move was that when she gave them notice of an increase in 2007, companies spent more than $17 million on licence pre-purchases to beat the deadline.
She argued they had not been paying their fair share of the charges that are used to maintain roads.
- NZPA
