Tolls Really Bug Me

[lukeycat]

I'm VP of the Club behind the push to try and get the government to sort out the tolling system.  Luke Donnellan who's the Minister for transport doesn't give a rat's bum, because Transurban and SICE/Thiess/John Holland have an agreement that has the vehicle classifications in it that's a hard and fast contact the government aren't prepared to try to renegotiate.

What I have done is to cancel our SICE (Breeze) account and opened a GoVia account which is run by Transurban out of Queensland, who don't classify the Amarok as a commercial vehicle, nor do they charge you to top up the account the way I want to like NSW do.

Since switching at the start of 2016, we've saved over $500 in tolls as the Amarok is tolled like a car.

I'm like Luke, I carry a fridge, recovery gear and a few fishing rods most of the time...

To be honest, I can't see the current Victorian government looking at it.  The Liberal Party have said they'll look at it, but I'm not holding my breath

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That's handy have just signed up will cancel the breeze account when the new tag arrives and see how it goes.


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[Charlie Brown]

yea hour n half (sometimes was more than 2 hours) on the Monash carpark or 30mins on the tollway...

So if you chose to use a toll road, for whatever reason, then you have made a conscious decision to pay for that privilage.  Don’t f**king whinge about the cost.  Nobody forced you to choose the toll road, there are alternatives.

[lukeycat]

So if you chose to use a toll road, for whatever reason, then you have made a conscious decision to pay for that privilage.  Don’t f**king whinge about the cost.  Nobody forced you to choose the toll road, there are alternatives.

Mate I'd say that's fair enough but two of the roads in Melbourne which are toll roads were originally freeways and the government sold their souls instead of paying for unless you live north west of the city there's not many options in getting to the airport etc, the other Toll road was an election promise which was a freeway with a lovely backflip when they won the election.

I don't mind paying to use the roads either I just want it to be fair my ute weighs less than a 200 series and has a lower GCM why should I have to pay double what they pay?


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[macca]

Keep fishing Charlie, youll get s bite soon

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[jwb]

Way back when I had a tow truck, they amended the fee for the gateway bridge,
 the charge was (my tow truck max 10 ton) the same as a semi/ b double = $10.20 one way IIRC
10 ton v 60 ton! very fair! NOT!
bugged me big time!

[Charlie Brown]

I don't mind paying to use the roads either I just want it to be fair my ute weighs less than a 200 series and has a lower GCM why should I have to pay double what they pay?

Fully agree and support your arguement.  It is not fair.

[Cruiser 105Tvan]

Tolls should be based on Gross weight  of the vehicle.
Only fair way.

[Charlie Brown]

Keep fishing Charlie, youll get s bite soon

Not fishing for anything unlike many of your posts.  I was simply expressing my opinion.

[corndog]

I'm VP of the Club behind the push to try and get the government to sort out the tolling system.  Luke Donnellan who's the Minister for transport doesn't give a rat's bum, because Transurban and SICE/Thiess/John Holland have an agreement that has the vehicle classifications in it that's a hard and fast contact the government aren't prepared to try to renegotiate.

What I have done is to cancel our SICE (Breeze) account and opened a GoVia account which is run by Transurban out of Queensland, who don't classify the Amarok as a commercial vehicle, nor do they charge you to top up the account the way I want to like NSW do.

Since switching at the start of 2016, we've saved over $500 in tolls as the Amarok is tolled like a car.

I'm like Luke, I carry a fridge, recovery gear and a few fishing rods most of the time...

To be honest, I can't see the current Victorian government looking at it.  The Liberal Party have said they'll look at it, but I'm not holding my breath

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I thought that they checked interstate etags and charged the account to the type of vehicle. I worked with a guy that was one of the first to do this and he got away with it for a while but ended up paying the higher toll charge anyway. I looked at doing it and found a newspaper article on him when searching google. If it's working for you your lucky.

[lukeycat]

I thought that they checked interstate etags and charged the account to the type of vehicle. I worked with a guy that was one of the first to do this and he got away with it for a while but ended up paying the higher toll charge anyway. I looked at doing it and found a newspaper article on him when searching google. If it's working for you your lucky.

Will see how I go I had my car originally as Touareg trying to beat the toll system after about 18 months got a letter saying my tag didn't match its vehicle type as transurban and eastlink have two different types of tag depending on what your driving maybe it related to that?


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[Spada]

Tolls should be based on Gross weight  of the vehicle.
Only fair way.

or distance travelled.............

In Brisbane the 2 major toll roads are the Logan Motorway and the Gateway Motorway that transverse North - South and East - West. Brisbane is divided in half by a river, If you live and travel on the South side using those motorways, 3 tolls for you.................If you travel the same distance on the toll roads North side of the river........No tolls for you ?

I think a fairer tolling method would be to have a camera at every on/off ramp. and charge based on the distance of the toll road used. There are sections of these toll roads that become gridlocked during peak hour every day by vehicles that effectively do not go through any tolling points, so the road is not "user pays", it is "users that pay subsidise those that don't"

[rags]

or distance travelled.............

In Brisbane the 2 major toll roads are the Logan Motorway and the Gateway Motorway that transverse North - South and East - West. Brisbane is divided in half by a river, If you live and travel on the South side using those motorways, 3 tolls for you.................If you travel the same distance on the toll roads North side of the river........No tolls for you ?

I think a fairer tolling method would be to have a camera at every on/off ramp. and charge based on the distance of the toll road used. There are sections of these toll roads that become gridlocked during peak hour every day by vehicles that effectively do not go through any tolling points, so the road is not "user pays", it is "users that pay subsidise those that don't"

Spada, I Don't quite get your 1st point. Living on the north side I will add in addition to the gateway toll we have the legacy tunnel toll, clem 7 toll and airport tunnel toll but like on the south side you can avoid using them.

I agree with the point to point tolling method like it is done on the Sydney M7.

[Rumpig]

or distance travelled.............

In Brisbane the 2 major toll roads are the Logan Motorway and the Gateway Motorway that transverse North - South and East - West. Brisbane is divided in half by a river, If you live and travel on the South side using those motorways, 3 tolls for you.................If you travel the same distance on the toll roads North side of the river........No tolls for you ?

I think a fairer tolling method would be to have a camera at every on/off ramp. and charge based on the distance of the toll road used. There are sections of these toll roads that become gridlocked during peak hour every day by vehicles that effectively do not go through any tolling points, so the road is not "user pays", it is "users that pay subsidise those that don't"

the main toll is for crossing the Gateway Bridge, not for driving the motorway to it...hence why distance has nothing to do with it. It was always the way, even way back when the Gateway Motorway was a 2 lane road with numerous roundabouts on it that only joined up to the M1 and not The Logan. They are 2  ompletely seperate road projects that got joined up years after each was built, hence why there is no relation to Northside and Southside.

[GBC]

Legacy way, airport link, east west. How long is it since you drove on the Northside? I love tolls and tunnels. Living in camp hill I have a tunnel and a couple of bridges to get me to the Northside to work. 15 years ago we would listen to the radio all afternoon, any issue near the airport/gateway and we shot through from work or we didn’t get home. How much would we pay to take a tunnel up past the north coast? I’d pay to use it.

[Spada]

Legacy way, airport link, east west. How long is it since you drove on the Northside?

I understand that yes there are tolls on the Northside, the point of my post was not to start a north v south war. What I meant was that the Gateway and Logan motorways were intended to link the extremities of Brisbane so travellers and heavy vehicles travelling from any direction did not need to use any of the main suburban feeders and effectively bypass Brisbane, but they are being choked by commuters who in a lot of cases avoid the tolls.

Trucks travelling from the ports to the Cunningham or Warrego Hwy are effectively forced onto the Logan motorway (and pay several tolls) because of the fines in place if they use Kessels Rd to avoid the tolls.

All of the other toll roads in Brisbane largely were built to relieve congestion during peaks and are not on major highways as such, and really only benefit commuters.

[BaseCamp]

In Brisbane the gateway bridge is tolled and owned by private enterprise  ... 

However, it's the taxpayer that's paid for, and has picked up the tab for every road feeding into that money muncher...

Great work when you can get it....    construct and pay for the bridges -(being your business model); but get others to pay for the conveyor belts that feed products into your business...

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[Bunyip]

So if you chose to use a toll road, for whatever reason, then you have made a conscious decision to pay for that privilage.  Don’t f**king whinge about the cost.  Nobody forced you to choose the toll road, there are alternatives.

In Sydney they intentionally closed the surface roads (it was part of the Public Private Partnership agreement) when opening the cross city tunnel. Yes there were alternatives to not paying, but they forced you a very very long way around for the privilege of not paying the toll. There was no other way to make the tunnel commercially viable than to "encourage" people to use it.

[Bird]

In Sydney they intentionally closed the surface roads (it was part of the Public Private Partnership agreement) when opening the cross city tunnel. Yes there were alternatives to not paying, but they forced you a very very long way around for the privilege of not paying the toll. There was no other way to make the tunnel commercially viable than to "encourage" people to use it.

they did the same here... encourage? Force.. which is why theres no real choice. you take the optional roads and if theres a smash, your down 2-3 hours.

queue the load that should have been swallowed.

[rags]

In Sydney they intentionally closed the surface roads (it was part of the Public Private Partnership agreement) when opening the cross city tunnel. Yes there were alternatives to not paying, but they forced you a very very long way around for the privilege of not paying the toll. There was no other way to make the tunnel commercially viable than to "encourage" people to use it.

But they didn't close all the roads they just reduce a 3 lane road into 1 by making it a seperate cycle lane, a seperate bus lane oh and a single lane for motorists so they are reminded of the congestion.
I wonder if they will do similar to that on Pennant Hills Rd once the new tunnel is built.

[scrubber]

Just read an interesting article in the RACV mag which I could really relate to in regards to the scam of a system that transurban and eastlink run when it comes to vehicle classification. I drive a duel cab amarok and get slugged a fortune when I have to use the toll roads as it's considered a light commercial vehicle my car doesn't carry any tools (other than a beer fridge and recovery gear) or do anything commercially so I wouldn't say it's a commercial veichle . It annoys me as it's not being used for commercial purposes it's my family daily driver. If I was in nsw I'd pay based on the vehicle dimensions which is fair enough and if I was in qld it would only be if it was registered as a commercial car I would be slugged a commercial rate.

My car weighs less than quite a few cars and larger 4x4s so technically should be less wear and tare on the road so why should I have to pay more.

Does this annoy anyone else.
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In QLD, the vehicle has to registered as a commercial vehicle as well.  I have 2 dual cab diesel 4x4 utes(1 cab chassis and 1 styleside/tub) and both of these have govia tags and are classified as Class 2 (cars).  Seems to be a fairer way of doing it.  That said I am strongly opposed to using tolls so GoVia rarely get a cent out of me. 

https://www.govia.com.au/help/using-toll-roads/using-toll-roads-in-australia/what-is-my-vehicle-class

 

[Hoyks]

Ditch the tolls and put a levy on fuel, say 3 cents for 3 years, and use the money for roads. Bigger vehicles use more fuel and therefore pay more $$.

Oh, that's right. NSW tried that, but at the 5 year mark the 3c became 5c, then 8c/L, its been going for 20+ years now and they still built toll roads.

 

[Bird]

Ditch the tolls and put a levy on fuel, say 3 cents for 3 years, and use the money for roads. Bigger vehicles use more fuel and therefore pay more $$.

Oh, that's right. NSW tried that, but at the 5 year mark the 3c became 5c, then 8c/L, its been going for 20+ years now and they still built toll roads.

 

same with harbour bridge... once a toll starts, theres no ending it - ever.


January 15, 2009 12:00am
IT remains one of the biggest mysteries for taxpayers across NSW; why are we still paying tolls on the Sydney Harbour Bridge?

Isn't it paid off? And the simple answer is, yes - of course it's paid off.

The original £9.6 million cost of the magnificent harbour crossing was in fact paid off 7399 days ago by the government of then NSW Premier Nick Greiner.
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/dont-we-own-the-bridge-yet/news-story/470a79a8df85451a62546f1ee5a43a1f?sv=9d46fd6e74ef2ce70a1cf9189001bdf4

[Hoyks]

same with harbour bridge... once a toll starts, theres no ending it - ever.

I can only think of one, there used to be toll booths at the end of the M1 at Berowra.

[#jonesy]

I can only think of one, there used to be toll booths at the end of the M1 at Berowra.

Westgate bridge Melbourne.

[rags]

I can only think of one, there used to be toll booths at the end of the M1 at Berowra.

Did the F? From Heathcote to Wollongong once have a toll?