Truckies plan downtown gridlock over road charges

[JP]

Doesn't change the fact that they shouldn't fuck with innocent people. Man people are so fucking short sighted.

There are going to have to be some huge changes sooner or later to cope with what's coming. The sooner the changes are made, the less painful they are. But that's now how people work, we'd rather push it off for as long as possible regardless of how much that'l fuck us over later on.

Shit is going to get rough. And there's no way in hell we're going to get a leader who will do what needs to be done, because they wouldn't get elected in the first place.

No, it's that mean government. Trying to take all our money so they can burn it and make us suffer. Right.

[MadMax]

Originally Posted by moo69

gg truckies you dumb motherfuckers!

they probably make twice as much as you do. i had a part time job working for one once, simply unloading his truck with a forklift for half an hour a night. he paid me very good money

[Redneck]

Net worth is not the same as value to society.

[MadMax]

not what i was saying at all.

[The Edge]

Had a great run into work this morning. Bar the trucks, the bridge was just about empty.

While I support the truckers, and agree the sharp increase isn't fair on them, I don't think this was the most efficient way to get their point across.

Having said that, I think the government is screwed next election. Here's hoping National (assuming they get in) don't cancel funding for all-set-to-go rail projects.

[chubby]

Originally Posted by JP

There are going to have to be some huge changes sooner or later to cope with what's coming. The sooner the changes are made, the less painful they are. But that's now how people work, we'd rather push it off for as long as possible regardless of how much that'l fuck us over later on.

Shit is going to get rough. And there's no way in hell we're going to get a leader who will do what needs to be done, because they wouldn't get elected in the first place.

No, it's that mean government. Trying to take all our money so they can burn it and make us suffer. Right.

totally QFT.

[chubby]

The trucking companies have done a magnificent job of getting most of us to cheer for their right to shift road maintenance costs off their bill and onto ours. I don't claim to entirely understand it, but over at that haven of deep thought and reason, the Herald's Your Views pages, people are lining up to back the truckies.

The paper's editorial advances the view that there may well be a sound case for the increase in the road user charge, but if people are being irrational and unreasonable, then that's the government's fault.

At any rate, the Road Transport Forum has done a magnificent job of organising a nationwide protest in 48 hours (anyone who thinks that Tony Friedlander and his chums might actually have done some advance planning for the increase they knew was coming some time this year is clearly a cynic) and of avoiding any detailed discussion of the size of the actual increase.

As the Herald editorial notes, Annette King says the Forum's own study indicates that a 10% increase in the RUC (which is rather less than that recommended by officials) adds up to a 1% increase in annual costs, or an additional $500 a year for a five tonne truck that travels 100,000km. Friedlander hasn't explicitly denied that analysis, and he was so evasive about actual costs in conversation with Sean Plunket this morning that Plunket eventually just cut him off.

But the thing that occurs to me is this: although the impact of the truck blockades has been notably uneven (Great North Road was almost empty at 8.30 when I dropped the boy at school), there will be small businesses which have dropped the additional annual cost of the RUC in just one morning. No one will be compensating them. (For everyone's sake, I hope there wasn't someone trying to get to hospital past the all-lane blockade the truck drivers put on the Southern motorway around Greenlane.)

But that doesn't matter. Because my unfocused sense of grievance and resentment is worth more than your fancy facts and numbers any day.

http://www.publicaddress.net/5126#post5126


links on the actual page-
adults in the comments.

[Useless]

Originally Posted by crocos

Moo you twit: RUC increases in turn increase the cost of transport, which directly increases the costs of the sale-price for the goods thus transported, which means you pay more for your half mocha double-shot soy latte as it costs more to make.

But if the truckers don't pay who fits the bill then, us right?

[Draco T Bastard]

Originally Posted by The Edge

While I support the truckers, and agree the sharp increase isn't fair on them,

What sharp increase? 1%? Get real.

[ZoSo]

Originally Posted by chubby

http://www.publicaddress.net/5126#post5126


links on the actual page-
adults in the comments.

I preferred him when he was an interesting to read techie. Now he's just another Labour mouthpeice. He can't go 2 days without feeling the need to back them up.

All King had to do was give them an advance warning which she had already given an understanding on and it would have probably been less of a scene. But no, the arrogance again of 'it'll wash over the masses and die down soon. No worries' fails them again. The timing was a shocker and the thought of them (truckies) pre-purchasing RUC licences at the old rate, was too much of a previous burn for her. Petty politics really. But you guys buy the party line so easy, it's pathetic.

[Wally Simmonds]

Originally Posted by ZoSo

I preferred him when he was an interesting to read techie. Now he's just another Labour mouthpeice..

Uh-huh....

Maybe they need it at the moment? Perhaps we should dredge the thread in three years

Edit: Yawnfest to the truckies.

[leadinjector]

whata shitty protest too. the idea of a protest like this is to cause some kind of actual problem isnt it? all theydid was piss people off for a couple of hours. weak. see if this was europe they would have made a logjam in the city of trucks and then set fire to 10% of them. then firebombed houses. THATS how you do a fucking protest, not this nancy bullshit.

[chubby]

Originally Posted by ZoSo

Now he's just another Labour mouthpeice. He can't go 2 days without feeling the need to back them up......

Petty politics really. But you guys buy the party line so easy, it's pathetic.

hah- same old 'liberal media' whine,
if you actually read him you'd see that, just like most kiwis, brown has drifted so far to the center that he's quite prepared to think of national as an option.

and regarding fair notice on the increase- i call BS.
the truckies would have spat the dummy either way, cause there's a strong belief on the part of business in godzone in socializing cost whenever possible- 'cause, you know, its "good for the economy".
the government will negotiate (as already announced), the truckies will have their warning, and life goes on. you never heard of 'going in hard'?


national mouthpiece.

[ZoSo]

Originally Posted by chubby

hah- same old 'liberal media' whine,

Heh. I'm just saying, it's like me quoting David Farrar (who I don't read) on the same site and saying his blogs comments are "adult" because they probably suit 99% of my opinion. Pretty disingenuous.

Originally Posted by chubby

if you actually read him you'd see that, just like most kiwis, brown has drifted so far to the center that he's quite prepared to think of national as an option.

I do actually read him, have for ages. That's why I said I preferred him when he was chasing tech stories. Any backing for anything National, is token at best. He almost strains to admit it and qualifies when he does. The majority of his posts and replies to comments, clearly indicate his preference. But that's cool, I take it all in anyway, cause I'm not quite that one-sided.

Originally Posted by chubby

and regarding fair notice on the increase- i call BS.
the truckies would have spat the dummy either way, cause there's a strong belief on the part of business in godzone in socializing cost whenever possible- 'cause, you know, its "good for the economy".
the government will negotiate (as already announced), the truckies will have their warning, and life goes on. you never heard of 'going in hard'?

Nice speculation. They knew an increase was coming and yes, they've now setup a working party (lol) and Mr Friedlander is quoted as saying:

He said truckies are not arguing for a decrease in road user charges but a fore-warning of when they are going up.
Mr Friedlander said there is a way for the ministry to get around the problem of truckies pre-buying road user charges by forcing them to cash in their existing paid-for kilometres and buying new ones at the new price.

"We don't want one operator having an advantage over another," Mr Friedlander said.

So if she and Labour still had any political nouse, they wouldn't have reneged and could have probably got in there beforehand and worked something out rather than drop the bomb the day they announce competition with their glorious new KiwiRail and while prices are skyrocketing. They can't wait 3 days? It's like they just don't care anymore and be damned with us all.
If you go in hard, expect to get hit back hard. So good on the truckies. (That said I don't agree with blocking the highways. I would have targeted other areas myself.)

Originally Posted by chubby

national mouthpiece.

There's like 6 of you on here who sing in chorus with Labours every word. Needs a counter. As you can't back EVERYTHING they do, surely.

[BloodDonor]

wonder how the truckies would feel if car owners organised something similiar and held them up from doing their jobs

[chubby]

Originally Posted by ZoSo

There's like 6 of you on here who sing in chorus with Labours every word. Needs a counter. As you can't back EVERYTHING they do, surely.

i back very little of what they do-
i place myself SIGNIFICANTLY to the 'left' of labour, and i really believe that to survive within the assumptions and interests that comprise democracy as it is currently defined, they've given up pretty much everything that they are meant to stand for.


But the torys can lick my plums.
and they are the only alternative you people seem to think exist.
so thats what im left with-
arguing the difference between vanilla, and french vanilla.

[funnel web]

[chubby]

yeah, yeah- a national landslide.
thats been obvious for a while now.

its not gonna make the country better for most,just a few-
and a bunch of retards who wont benefit in any material way, will feel better because their bigotry and ignorance are pandered to nicely.
we've been here before and it dosn't work.

take that cartoon- re-caption the truck 'the future', replace the helen caricature with a slack-jawed yokel,and caption it 'those who vote against their own best interests'.

[BloodDonor]

anyone notice the country runs best when the politicians are on holiday?

[chubby]

Originally Posted by BloodDonor

anyone notice the country runs best when the politicians are on holiday?

fine point,sir.
we should reflect apon it.

[Ard Righ]

Originally Posted by ZoSo

All King had to do was give them an advance warning which she had already given an understanding on and it would have probably been less of a scene.

How about this for a shocking idea. How about the RTF pay the $40 million dollars in outstanding RUC that they already owe, before they decide they will try and gridlock the country over a 1% overall increase in costs?

$40 million in backpayments is a great deal more than the current proposed increase, and shoots down any claims the RTF had of being the 'good guys' in this argument.

Trucking companies want the taxpayers - that's all of us - to foot the bill for the damage they do to the roads, instead of paying for it themselves.

I agree the RUC formula is highly flawed, but until it's changed the RTF need to stfu please and pay their taxes like the rest of us.

[BloodDonor]

Originally Posted by Ard Righ

How about this for a shocking idea. How about the RTF pay the $40 million dollars in outstanding RUC that they already owe, before they decide they will try and gridlock the country over a 1% overall increase in costs?

$40 million in backpayments is a great deal more than the current proposed increase, and shoots down any claims the RTF had of being the 'good guys' in this argument.

Trucking companies want the taxpayers - that's all of us - to foot the bill for the damage they do to the roads, instead of paying for it themselves.

I agree the RUC formula is highly flawed, but until it's changed the RTF need to stfu please and pay their taxes like the rest of us.

if it costs the trucking companies more, theyll pretty much pass it on, its how business works... noone likes to operate at a loss... i think however, they tend to think they SHOULDNT have to pay more because theyre special

[NT_VlaD]

All commuters should drive slowley on the motorway, blocking it up during peak hour, as a protest to increased petrol prices ....


Oh ,wait a minute ...