Road user charges: Errors mean some EV owners can’t buy RUCs online; uptake so far revealed

EVs and plug-in hybrids officially lost their road user tax exemption on April 1 - but drivers were given a two-month grace period to comply with the new regime. Photo / Chris Keall

A Tesla owner has told the Herald he’s been “trying to do the right thing” and register for road user charges (RUCs) before the May 31 deadline.

But for three days, he has encountered the error message below when trying to buy a licence on the NZ Transport Agency’s website.

The computer says 'no'.

He has still not been able to prepay, as required, for at least one unit of RUCs. They are sold in $76 blocks, each covering 1000km of driving.

An NZTA spokesman said: “There have been no outages of the online purchase portal. However, via our contact centre, we are aware of some customers having issues making payments.

“Upon investigation, we have found that these payment issues are often device-related. The complex nature of internet usage, including factors like cached information, can potentially affect online payments.”

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The Tesla owner, who works in the tech industry, said there was nothing unusual about his setup.

“The ‘device’ I’m using is a desktop Mac and I’ve tried three different browsers – Chrome, Safari and Firefox – over the last couple of days and got the same error message.”

No phone option

Given the NZTA’s error message instruction says “If you continue to receive this message, you’ll need to call us”, the Herald tried calling the agency’s 0800 number.

After a 7-minute, 11-second wait, an operator said there was no option to buy RUCs by phone.

Read More

• Road-user charges for EVs: More of your questions answered
• EV owners: Road user chargers will cost us twice what petrol car owners pay in fuel tax
• That $26 Auckland-Tauranga round tirp in your Tesla? After RUCs, it will cost $58

She confirmed that, if you can’t buy an RUC licence online, you can buy one over the counter from an NZTA-approved agent, such as the AA or VTNZ.

That will cost slightly more, however.

There’s an admin fee of $12.44 each time you prepay for a block of mileage online, compared with $13.71 over the counter.

Two-month grace period

Officially, EVs and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) lost their longstanding exemption to the road user tax on April 1.

But Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced a two-month grace period before penalties kick in, effectively shifting the implementation date to May 31. (Electric vehicle owners will have to display an RUC licence on their windshield, which will include their mileage at the time they prepaid for the charges. This will be cross-checked against their odometer each time they get a warrant.)

Only one-third of EV owners have bought a RUC licence so far

If the Tesla owner had been able to complete the process, he would have got in ahead of a possible last-minute rush.

“As of this morning [May 3], 36,635 licences have been purchased,” an NZTA spokesman told the Herald. “That equates to 34.82 per cent of the total number of vehicles (105,227).”

5000 fined

Last year, some 5000 fines were issued to light diesel vehicle owners, NZTA says.

Fines for not displaying a current RUC licence range between $200 and $400, while late RUC payments incur a 10 per cent penalty on the amount owing.

Read the Herald’s full Q&A on EVs and road user charges here.

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.