What a car rego really does
Damien O’Carroll.
Many electronic brakes also offer active safety benefits: if a driver has a health issue, for example, a passenger can use the brake button to slow and stop the car (the electronics recognise the car is moving and control the movement).
The likes of Audi, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lexus, Mercedes, and Porsche no longer have any models on sale fitted with a traditional handbrake.
So what’s the big deal?
For many car enthusiasts, the impending extinction of the manual handbrake is a bit sad. It’s one of the last controls in a modern car that gives you direct contact with a mechanical function sans electronic assistance of any kind.
It also means the art of the hill start will disappear. Which is happening anyway with the rise of automatic transmissions.
That all sounds a bit oldfashioned (and it is), but it’s one more step towards motorists not having to learn driving skills and mechanical sympathy because the car can do it all for you.
It goes without saying that the death of the handbrake also means the death of the most crucial driving skill of all: the handbrake turn. Practise yours now while you can.
Much confusion has greeted the news that the Government is considering scrapping the annual vehicle licensing fee, commonly referred to as the ‘‘rego’’.
It circulates around what the ‘‘rego’’ actually is. The small label that sits down the bottom left hand side of your windscreen (which is what the government is considering scrapping) isn’t actually your ‘‘registration’’ as such, despite being referred to as the rego.
It is, in fact, the ‘‘vehicle licence’’ that is acquired by the person recorded on the Motor Vehicle Register as being entitled to be in possession of the vehicle.
The registered person – who doesn’t have to be the legal owner – is responsible for the vehicle and for meeting the requirements that allow it to be driven legally on the road. This includes keeping it in safe condition, and paying the licensing fees and any traffic or parking infringements.
To be licensed a vehicle must have a current Warrant of Fitness or Certificate of Fitness and it must be registered.
Not your registration
The registration is the thing that the Government isn’t considering scrapping – it is the one-off requirement that identifies the legal owner of the vehicle.
Registration requires paying a one-time fee to add the vehicle’s details to the Motor Vehicle Register. When it is added to the register number plates are issued for it, that must be attached to the vehicle.
When does that happen?
This usually only happens once for most vehicles, when they arrive in New Zealand and are first going to be used on the road.
Vehicles have safety and identification inspections during the process and, once passed, a certificate of registration is sent to the registered person that lists the vehicle’s details and the registered person’s details and responsibilities.
Basically, your number plates represent the vehicle’s actual registration, while the small, confusingly-nick-named rego label is actually the vehicle licence, which is the piece of the puzzle that the Government is considering scrapping.
A ‘revenue-gathering exercise’
Given that the Warrant of Fitness (or WoF) of any vehicle is matched to its registration, the actual licensing process is largely, as current Transport Minister Phil Twyford said when he was in opposition, a ‘‘giant revenue gathering device’’.
But that revenue is valuable to the Government, with the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) and the National Land Transport Fund (NLTF) both getting significant funding from it.
What do they get?
Twyford said the current vehicle licensing system raised $469 million last year, and cost taxpayers $50m to administer.
Most of the money went to ACC, $235m, with the National Land Transport Fund taking the next biggest chunk of $185m.
Is a fuel tax fairer?
Adding a levy to fuel is arguably a fairer way to gather the revenue, as the highest users pay more, while those who only use their vehicles occasionally and, therefore, are at less risk on the roads (ACC) and create less wear and tear (it’s negligible, but it is a part of the NLTF). But increases in petrol prices hit everyone eventually, particularly given our reliance on road transport for essentials like food.
The increasing number of hybrid and electric vehicles on our roads also throw an interesting new wrinkle into the equation (albeit not in large enough proportions to be significant yet), as do diesel Road User Charges (RUC).
The fuel tax would need to increase 5 cents a litre this year, and another 2 cents for each of the following two years, if the system was replaced now.
A similar increase would be needed in road user charges, which are paid by owners of diesel vehicles.
What about vehicles that don’t use the road?
Should tractors, farm quads, boats and other non-road going vehicles have to pay?
Putting a complex refund or exemption system in place would almost certainly cancel out any of the savings made by scrapping the licensing fee for what is a comparatively small sector of fuel users.
Another option for recovering the money is network pricing, where motorists are charged when they use high-demand roads. Otherwise the motor vehicle register could be updated and licensing fees collected when vehicles had their safety inspection.
A complete overhaul of the entire system could well be the answer, but it would also be very expensive, very complex and still not keep everyone happy.
It is a far more complex issue than it might appear on the surface, so it is no wonder that Twyford quickly noted that there were more ‘‘urgent commitments’’ for the Government and that no changes would be likely soon.