Mathew Dearnaley

Some bus and truck operators went on a fuel-tax "buying" spree on Friday and Saturday after the Government gave them just two days' warning of an average 11 per cent rise in road-user charges.

One large South Island bus company is understood to have spent almost $1 million, buying six months of road-user charges at the old rate, which have been in force since 1989.

Industry organisations representing bus and truck firms are annoyed at the short notice of the increase, which came into effect yesterday and ranges from zero to 22 per cent for vehicles weighing six tonnes or more when laden.

The Government has defended its decision to waive a standard 28-day notice period for regulatory changes, saying it was entitled to protect its revenue base, to ensure that all vehicles paid their share of wear and tear to roads.

But the reduced notice period still allowed operators able to raise funds at short notice to buy up road-user distance licences before yesterday's increase.

Christchurch's Red Bus Company, owned by the city council, is believed to have spent about $900,000 to achieve a saving of $150,000.

Bus and Coach Association executive director John Collyns said that was all very well for wealthier operators, but many smaller firms were left in the invidious position of having no time to renegotiate contracts with their customers.

"The Government has been a bit devious shoving this through late on Thursday," said Mr Collyns, who estimated that the tax increase would cost bus and coach operators an extra $4 million a year.

Acting Transport Minister Harry Duynhoven said road charges for vehicles heavier than six tonnes had not risen since 1989, despite an almost doubling of taxes on lighter vans and buses in the meantime.

A Ministry of Transport official estimated that the overall increase would raise an extra $59 million towards roading costs, to which Mr Duynhoven said the Government needed to ensure all vehicles contributed their fair share.

"Vehicles over six tonnes in weight cause a disproportionate amount of wear and tear to roads."

The minister said an extra $1.3 billion committed by the Government to land transport in last year's Budget meant it was spending $300 million more than it would receive from road users in the three years to 2009 "to ensure New Zealand has a world-class transport system".

He said road charges made up about 10 per cent of transport operators' direct costs, so an 11 per cent rise would mean an overall cost hit of around 1 per cent.

That was little comfort to South Auckland cartage contractor Wil Harvie, president of the National Road Carriers' Association, who said he was trying to scrape up enough money to buy two months of travel for a saving of around $300.

Mr Harvie said he was fortunate in having only a small number of fixed contracts, meaning he would in most cases be able to pass on extra road charges, but he feared some operators might be driven out of business.

Road Transport Forum chief executive Tony Friedlander said the Government was guilty of "either a casual indifference to the financial viability of transport businesses across New Zealand or total ignorance of how business is carried out".

Tax on petrol also rose yesterday, by an inflation-adjusted 0.69c a litre, as did road user charges on vehicles of six tonnes or less - by 0.64c for every 1000km including GST.

But the Automobile Association has called on oil companies to absorb the petrol excise increase. As of last night petrol prices had yet to go up and oil companies were not commenting.

Bus passengers are being promised sweeping law changes offering them better odds of getting picked up on time, and by clean and safe vehicles. 

 The Government intends giving the Auckland Regional Transport Authority, and councils elsewhere in New Zealand, wide powers to set standards for all urban bus and ferry services.  The tough new measures will be imposed regardless of whether the services are run commercially or with subsidies from the public purse.

Regional councils will be able to deregister commercial services which fail to keep to their timetables. Ministry of Transport officials are working on an incentive and penalty regime to apply before that happens. At present, councils can set standards only for subsidised services, and operators do not even have to provide them with patronage information for planning purposes.

Operators face no sanction other than passengers voting with their feet if buses or ferries fail to turn up.  Transport Minister Annette King plans to introduce the legislation within six months to encourage more New Zealanders to leave their cars at home.

Her mission has been given added urgency by the Government's new goal of making New Zealand a world leader in energy sustainability, and the fact that only 3 per cent of people caught buses to work on Census Day last March.  Ms King said boosting public transport was a major part of the push towards sustainability, and her aim was to remove disincentives for people to travel on buses and ferries.

"For example, there would be the ability to require integrated ticketing or to set standards for ease of access for passengers into vehicles."

The lack of tickets for passengers to use interchangeably when transferring between rival transport fleets is a particular bug-bear in Auckland.  Having to pay separate fares is seen as a major road-block to more people using public transport.

Ms King acknowledged the legislation would not go as far as the Auckland authority wanted, which was to give it power to pocket all bus and ferry fares, from which it would pay transport operators fees based on passenger numbers.  That is how the authority runs urban rail services, which will not be affected directly by the new legislation.

The Bus and Coach Association had warned of a dramatic rise in subsidy costs for ratepayers and the Government, and the minister accepted there might have been "some problems" from a potential withdrawal of investment by commercial operators.

But she said the new rules would enable transport authorities to obtain commercial information from operators for network planning, and to set minimum standards over all urban services to increase passenger confidence.

Association executive director John Collyns accepted last night that regional councils expected some influence over commercial operations, as well as those they subsidised, but he feared the legislation would tip the balance too far.  "What the Government is handing Arta is the ability to create a sort of master-servant relationship - and if we are not going to be equal partners taking equal risks, public transport is not going to be well-served in Auckland."

A particular fear was the potential for the transport authority to stop commercial bus services competing against subsidised trains, meaning passengers would have to transfer at railways stations rather than continue along more direct routes.  Mr Collyns denied there were any quality differences between commercial and subsidised services in Auckland, which were all run by the same fleets, and said performance standards in New Zealand were markedly better than in Australia and North America.

Infratil director Tim Brown, whose company owns the Stagecoach fleet, said it was encouraging that the minister was leaning to much more of a consultative model than feared and he was optimistic his team could keep working with councils to provide greater service frequencies.  Regional transport authority chief executive Fergus Gammie said the proposal would let his agency work collaboratively with operators to achieve an integrated public transport system with integrated fares.

Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee said it was a step in the right direction.

Auckland's gruelling bus dispute is unlikely to go anywhere this week, even though both sides say they hope to return to mediation to head off any more strikes next month.

Stagecoach says it is ready to meet union negotiators before a mediator at any time, while continuing to insist it has no more money to offer drivers after their six-day strike, which ended last Tuesday. But it acknowledges a meeting is unlikely during a week-long absence overseas of combined unions advocate Gary Froggatt, although drivers say their negotiators could respond to any approaches in the meantime.

The company has also re-submitted an application to the Employment Relations Authority for it to make the first binding pay ruling under new industrial law, on the basis of an alleged "serious and sustained" breach of good faith by union negotiators, which they deny. A hearing will begin on June 14 unless a settlement is reached first.

Stagecoach executive chairman Ross Martin says the company is prepared to give mediation another chance, despite 750 drivers voting on Wednesday by more than 13 to 1 to reject a new pay offer - one that even some union negotiators thought might have been acceptable.

The drivers held to their claim for an immediate pay rise to $16 an hour, and added a surprise demand for $17 in November, although they decided to refrain from any more industrial action until early next month. They held a stopwork meeting after Stagecoach doubled to $1200 a previous offer of cash in lieu of six months' backpay, but refused to lift the first instalment of a three-year wage regime above $15.

The only new movement from previous offers was of 7c an hour to $15.40 from November next year, and drivers were furious at being asked to wait until mid-2007 for $16.

But despite the drivers' added claim and militant mood, Mr Froggatt has since indicated they might settle for $16 if the company offers that before a deadline of June 7 set by the stopwork meeting, after which there could be more strikes.

He acknowledged that a lower settlement for drivers at Stagecoach's main Auckland rival, Ritchies Transport, could undermine the claim to some extent but said unions would keep pushing the larger company to set the benchmark for the rest of the industry. National Distribution Union organiser Karl Andersen confirmed the Ritchies deal at $14.05 an hour without overtime rates this year, rising to $14.60 next year. This compares with $13.20 previously paid to Ritchies drivers, and $13.94 received now by their Stagecoach counterparts, who also earn penal rates for overtime.

Mr Martin said Stagecoach had put "huge dollars on the table, and way more than Ritchies, and they are our major competitor in Auckland".

Ritchies director Andrew Ritchie said he did not want to be drawn into Stagecoach's dispute. What he paid his staff was nobody else's business. He said his company offered them greater flexibility to work more hours and hence earn more than Stagecoach drivers, and he believed a lower staff turnover indicated a happier workforce.

The Council of Trade Unions has meanwhile come out in support of the Stagecoach drivers' pay claim, after a vote last week of its affiliates council representing more than 300,000 union members. President Ross Wilson said he had offered to take a support role in the drivers' negotiations, was in contact with Mr Froggatt in Australia, and had already spoken to Mr Martin.

Hourly wages
* Waiheke Buses: $14.92 - due to rise to $15.37 in July. No extra overtime rate.
* Birkenhead Transport: $14.68 (average after including industry allowance) - due for renegotiation soon. Extra overtime rate.
* Howick and Eastern: $14.17 - due for renegotiation soon. Overtime extra.
* Urban Express: $14.05. No overtime rate.
* Ritchie Transport: $14.05 - to rise to $14.60 next year. No overtime rate.
* Stagecoach: $13.94 - has offered $15 now, $15.40 late next year, $16 in 2007. Overtime extra.