Road Maintenance Tax

Wow Jim, that is an interesting piece of transport history.

All

If anyone wants to see just how complex the Queensland Road Tax system was - then the re-print of the Truckin Lifes first edition (comes as a bonus with the current issue) has an article on it.

i knew a guy who picked up his new Commer truck from the Brisbane Dealer (just Cab Chassis). On his way home he went past a road side fruit stall and bought a case (yes wooden box) of pineapples to take home to the bush.

Got to Burpengarry Weigh Station - and they looked in the cab to find the pineapple case sitting on the floor. They wrote him up for not having a permit to cart them.

Another guy got a bill from the Main Roads Dept for damage one of his trucks caused to a bridge - took out a few guide posts. He wrote back advising: Dear Sir - I think you will find sufficient funds to cover this account in my last Road Tax payment. He never heard anymore about it.

As for the SA avoidence system - yes - I recall quite a number of interstate runners who all had the same SA address on the door.

Oldfulla

And then there was THE blockade of all blockades!!!
Yass became my home for the duration.
From memory it finished a day before Easter......... all trucks were allowed to run without logbooks for the next couple of days just to try to get them off the roads before easter!! A lot were known to put 40t on & go like hell..........

And the blockades finally lead to the dropping of road tax ................. to be replaced by a fuel tax which couldn't really be avoided thus levelling things up.

I've seen references going back to the 1950's when a fuel tax was being proposed as a better option than road tax Slow learners in Canberra eh!

...more like slow do'ers jimbo .. all to do with political expediency

And the Age editorialised............

Amazing the differences between the States.
People seem confused about the "taxes" here in Qld at that time.
We had Road Tax and Contribution to Road Maintenance.
Road tax was intrastate only and was designed to protect the railways.
Any load that could have been carried by rail incurred this tax when carried by road. There was a huge list of exemptions but the tax was strictly enforced, hence the unlucky bloke getting done with the pineapples, pineapples was always a favourite of the railways.
Contribution to Road Maintenance was often called a road tax but it was designed to repair any roads used by heavy vehicles.
Returns were submitted monthly showing the route taken for every journey and then the money raised was spent on those roads most used.
I thought it was pretty clever and all done in days long before computers.
I can remember the local council diverting our trucks for a few weeks just to collect some extra funds for that particular road, cunning buggers.
I never had any trouble doing the returns, one cheque for Qld and another for NSW each month.
Once they moved to a fuel tax, it all became lost in Consolidated Revenue as was the money supposedly returned for road construction.
Obviously the general public using diesel also then contributed whereas previously their only contribution was annual rego.
You only have to look at the condition of our roads, then compare Grumpy's diesel bill at around 8c per litre to see this current system is ripping us off big time.

Amazing the differences between the States.
People seem confused about the "taxes" here in Qld at that time.
We had Road Tax and Contribution to Road Maintenance.
Road tax was intrastate only and was designed to protect the railways.
Any load that could have been carried by rail incurred this tax when carried by road. There was a huge list of exemptions but the tax was strictly enforced, hence the unlucky bloke getting done with the pineapples, pineapples was always a favourite of the railways.
Contribution to Road Maintenance was often called a road tax but it was designed to repair any roads used by heavy vehicles.
Returns were submitted monthly showing the route taken for every journey and then the money raised was spent on those roads most used.
I thought it was pretty clever and all done in days long before computers.
I can remember the local council diverting our trucks for a few weeks just to collect some extra funds for that particular road, cunning buggers.
I never had any trouble doing the returns, one cheque for Qld and another for NSW each month.
Once they moved to a fuel tax, it all became lost in Consolidated Revenue as was the money supposedly returned for road construction.
Obviously the general public using diesel also then contributed whereas previously their only contribution was annual rego.
You only have to look at the condition of our roads, then compare Grumpy's diesel bill at around 8c per litre to see this current system is ripping us off big time.

Ah ha, but Qld had road tax AND a permit system , the permits were to cover the railways, if I loaded in Brisbane for Mt Isa, I was required to buy a permit, but if I loaded in Tweed heads for Mt Isa, no permit required as it was an interstate load, result, "border hopping", wool from Longreach unloaded in Tweed Heads and reloaded (different truck) and unloaded in Brisbane, no permit required.

Hi BK. Another instance of "border hopping".
In about 1970 I was driving a tipper for a bloke from Cudgera Creek near Pottsville carting mineral sand from Clybucca (between Kempsey & Macksville) to the refining plant at Kingscliff (near Tweed Heads) but I took it to a old quarry site at Tugun (near the present day John Flynn Hospital) where I tipped and another bloke with a Volvo carted it back to Kingscliff.This made it an interstate trip and allowed the truck to run on IS plates. All quite legal.This was not Pottsville Trucking or Hardys Haulage.

The mob i worked for had SA plates and had painted on the battery box , Prospect traders ,
Prospect highway ,
Prospect .