With road user charges (RUC) to be paid by every owner of a petrol-powered car in New Zealand from April next year, Peter Griffin, of the Business of Tech Podcast speaking in the Herald NOW Business’s Tech Now with 2degrees segment, says Kiwis should expect to see a flurry of apps being developed to help smooth the transition. With a lot of modern connected vehicles on the road able to read odometers, businesses and loyalty schemes with strong customer touch points are likely to start developing apps to make paying the charges even simpler for motorists. The RUC’s, which herald the phasing out of petrol tax at the pump, will require owners to pay a charge based on vehicle weight and kms driven. There will be winners and losers, ironically Griffen says, gas guzzling vehicles may pay less in RUCs.