TOMORROW: Angry truckies to clog city streets

[SLOTEG]

lol sorry what was that, i couldnt hear your comments over the racket out in the cowshed. got some sheep to muster later as well. and a swandri to wash. god damn dry as a bone has lamb shit on it too, needs a quick brush down.

and yep i drove a starlet for work, being a courier and all, it was quite cheap and quick, easy as fuck to park almost anywhere in the auckland cbd, and proud of that fact. i owned and operated my own business when fuel costs and other shit were starting to get ontop of the transport industry. and now im a truck driver. does that give me the right to comment on an issue thats fucking up the very industry that supports the country? too bloody right!

and yep i still own that blanket too, cause its warm as hell! one of the cats currently sleeps on it.

so i dont pretend to be anything im not. im no latte drinking, boat shoe wearing, $60 haircut buying ponsonby pretty boy. im a country bumpkin from the wairarapa. i wear steel capped boots, put my shorts on one leg at a time, love my cars and my friends and my family, wear black singlets and rugby shorts and a floppy hat when i work.

i would never compare myself to the great Pinetree Meads, and quite frankly i dont believe many people in the country could compare themselves to the hard men who lived in generations past. my grandfather fought in ww2 and was one of the hardest bastards i have ever known. am i in his league? definately not. are any of you? not even close.

this country is a softcock pc paradise and its about time the backbone of this country (the hard working professional drivers who keep you all in the precious little items that you hold so dear) stood up and said ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! and it appears through the coverage on tv that they have. auckland city is now in a standstill. gotten a couple txts from around the country from friends saying the major cities are all clogged with thousands of upset truckies who are just trying to get their point across to a government who enjoys going back on their word and refuses to listen to the very people who voted them in: the new zealand public.

[Soichiro]

Originally Posted by Tec' Wingz

Isn't telling others "tough...it's only one day...get over it" the exact attitude that you want the government to change? They're simply saying to truckies "tough...its only a few cents...get over it".

Yep but it's more than that, there's a hell of a lot of frustration out there , and these are guys who can make a noise. They've fired people's imagination, and that's a good thing , the whole thing is damned exciting IMHO. There's a bit of rebel in everyyone

Don't agree? Look at some of the comments here:

New Zealand, world, sport, business & entertainment news on Stuff.co.nz

and the poll results - 72.5% in favour of the truckies

A wake-up call and long overdue.

[SLOTEG]

pics, thanks to grandell walking to work this morning and sending them to me

[Moclov]

Sloteg, all I'm saying is everyone who gets up every morning and goes to work is equally important to this country Truck drivers have their part to play, but so does everyone else, yet you seem to get quite derogatory when referring to anyone who isn't a hard farm-raised manual worker.

Everybody love everybody!

[doo0T!doo0T!]

I have never got to work so fast before, all the roads were deserted as I sneaked through down before the wave of trucks blocking the motorway hit the city, on the other side of the road coming into the city however it was a different story, I saw trucks four abreast stopping the whole motor-way even the verge lane and crawling at about 5km/h and then the convoy from hell which must have been a good 40 trucks end on end coming over the harbour bridge stretched from the bridge right back past onewa road, it was awesome to see actually and I felt strangely proud of them standing up and having their say.

Didn't help that the radio was palying the truckie song at the time, I thought I'd been transported into smokey and the bandit Damn that was a cool movie.

So what's downtown like at the moment is it chaos?


I think the whole thing is great, I don't really give a shit about the politics of the whole thing I just really like the way a group is standing up and raising a middle finger at "the boss" because they've had enough.
I hope a lot more of this happens in the future just to remind the politicians they are actually public servants and sometimes they need to listen to the people that pay for their existence before making decisions on behalf of "a population too dumb to know whats good for them."

[dc1integra]

Originally Posted by dc1integra

Transport Minister Annette King is defending new road charges saying they are minimal but truckies are furious at the changes and plan to clog city centres across the country tomorrow.

The nationwide protest which organisers have promised will see 1000 trucks in the centre of Auckland will disrupt commuters heading to work on Friday.
The trucks will be driven into the centre of cities between 7.30am and 9am in what trucking representatives say is the first national protest taken by the industry.

New Zealand, world, sport, business & entertainment news on Stuff.co.nz

anyone want to bring out the civic's???

bring back the civics!!!! now this(below) is just fucking stupid!

[SLOTEG]

maybe we need the :rolleyes: emoticon back so i could insert many of them all over that post of mine
i have plenty of respect for people who are honest hardworking members of society, self employed or not, back-of-beyond hardass farm workers or soft spoken office types. if your working and making something for yourself then u get from me
anyways
back to the original topic, transport service operators being fucked by RUC and the fact that annette king likes to lie

[dc1integra]

i agree with the protest but dont be like the minority (fuck wits) and block motorways... have your say but dont fuck all the general public off or they will rebel.

[doo0T!doo0T!]

Originally Posted by dc1integra

now this(below) is just fucking stupid!

I wouldn't be surprised if they all get tickets because their plates are all on the city CCtv system which is run by the police at the downtown station.
Happens in the UK all the time, they can zoom in and check your rego/wof and find out if you've paid to drive in that zone.

[Snoozin]

Sweet! Is that an old T series International in that pic of the 3 trucks blocking the motorway? AWESOME!!!

[BLAZED_RACER]

good on them...

gutted I forgot my phone or camera this morning dropping Mel off at work, was an awesome site here in Hamilton,


Luke left for work, told me traffic was backed out to tamahere / airport turn off, right into cobham drive into angelsea street in hamilton, saw cops in town trying to direct the flow of the protest, this big rig with a heavy digger on the back of it decided to direct the flow himself, he just pulled the truck over in the middle of the road, parked up and jumped out, cop didnt know what to do.!!

[nva2nd]

40 gawd damn minutes from Te Rapa Honda to Frankton WTF

[nemesisteg]

haha good on them!!! and whos gives a flying **** if they block all the traffic for a couple or few hours, message needs to get out loud and clear that what the government (transport minister) did. you cant just increase the RUC and all that jazz without warning. imagine if the govt said it was compulsory for me to pay 4% to kiwisaver for each of my employees, imagine the effect that would have on a whole to employers!! id be blocking more than motorways LOL

[Dionysus]

Originally Posted by nemesisteg

imagine if the govt said it was compulsory for me to pay 4% to kiwisaver for each of my employees,

Just take it out of their salaries, like my work

[nemesisteg]

Originally Posted by Dionysus

Just take it out of their salaries, like my work

well as employers we do take part out of your salary and then we have to pay our part aswell, which we can claim back anyways so its all pretty swings and roundabouts. you know you can opt out of the scheeme aye once youve been part of it for 2weeks?? we dont support kiwisaver, sure it has benefits, but only if you plan on buying a house in the ghetto or you just want a few bob when your old, still much better super anuation schemes than kiwisaver.

i was just using it as a semi example if ya know what i mean

[Dionysus]

I meant the employer contribution is coming out as well...

[xsiv]

dammm i am sick of our government they are out of control

[Colza]

Annette King

1 July, 2008
Road User Charges increase



Transport Minister Annette King says Road User Charges (RUC), affecting diesel vehicles and all other vehicles weighing more than 3.5 tonnes, will increase from 1 July.

Ms King says the increase is needed to ensure all road users pay their fair share of the costs of roading.

“The Government is currently funding New Zealand’s largest National Land Transport Programme, allocating a total of $2.7 billion for transport activities in 2008/09, including approximately $791 million for State highway construction, $325 million for passenger transport services and infrastructure and $273 million for road policing,” Ms King said. “Without all road users paying their fair share, this level of investment cannot continue to be sustained.”

For a small diesel car, it will cost $3.28 more to drive 1000 kilometres, or $32.80 more for an average year’s motoring of 10,000 km, she said. A larger vehicle, such as a three tonne SUV, will cost an extra $49.20 per 10,000km.

A typical five tonne truck will pay an additional $53.80 per 10,000 kilometres, while a 23 tonne four-axle truck can expect to pay an additional $198.

“RUC represents approximately 10 percent of total truck operating costs; therefore the impact of this increase on cartage rates will be relatively insignificant. I would not expect these increases to have any noticeable impact on consumer prices,” Ms King said.

”RUC for diesel vehicles weighing more than six tonnes has only been increased once (last year) since 1989.”

The Government will now channel all fuel excise duty, RUC and motor vehicle registration fees into the National Land Transport Fund. This change, termed “full hypothecation”, will also come into effect from 1 July.

“Changes to the way revenue is channelled means that $600 million a year that petrol users previously paid into the general Crown revenue pool will now be dedicated to transport purposes,” Ms King said.

“As diesel is not subject to any taxation apart from the 0.33 cent a litre Local Authority Petroleum tax, and the 0.025 cent a litre petroleum fuels monitoring levy, these increases to RUC will help restore the balance between charges paid by diesel and petrol users so diesel users make a fairer contribution to the National Land Transport Fund.”

Ms King said no notice of the increases was given to avoid mass pre-purchasing of RUC at the old rates.

“When notice was given of RUC increases in 2007 there was more than $17.5 million of RUC licences pre-purchased at the old rate. This gave an unfair advantage to those who could afford to pre-purchase a large amount, and resulted in lower levels of RUC being collected by the Government.

“Under current legislation RUC licences can be pre-purchased and used over an unlimited period of time.

“In the future the Government intends to amend the RUC Act for vehicles weighing more than 3.5 tonnes to restrict the period of time in which pre-purchased licences can continue to be used after a RUC increase. This will allow the Government to give a reasonable notice period of increases.”

[VTAKYO]

I think there is more to this than simply the unannounced road user charge increase. If you hear part of the argument, it is that the increase will filter down the chain into the shops, taking more out of the average Kiwi's pocket. It is then emphasised that the country is in enough strife as it is coping with hugely increased living costs over the past year, so this increase will just make things uncessarily harder. So, I think that this protest should be supported by everybody, as it is effectively for the good of us all. Once again, the government just doesn't appear to care about the welfare of the average New Zealander.

[grandell]

Originally Posted by David R

Transport companies charge more to deliver food/petrol, cost of living goes up, more people struggling, so the government increases tax so they can give working-for-families style handouts.
There's a hole in my bucket....

what a vicious cycle... if only there was some way to reduce the amount of money spent on welfare benefits...

[iRacer]

I too woke up early to beat the truckies - good thing too as the Southern Motorway had a bit of a blockage for a while. Getting to work that early is surreal - watching the sunrise from the office window is very sad indeed.
What surprises me is that none of the radio stations played the Convoy song from the movie - would have been quite appropriate I think - 'We got a great big convoy...'.

[VTAKYO]

Hah, RDU played Kora and announced themselves proud supporters of the "Posthaste" truck

[doo0T!doo0T!]

Originally Posted by iRacer

What surprises me is that none of the radio stations played the Convoy song from the movie - would have been quite appropriate I think - 'We got a great big convoy...'.

Newstalk ZB played it all morning Got me right in the mood.

[David R]

Originally Posted by Annette King

For a small diesel car, it will cost $3.28 more to drive 1000 kilometres, or $32.80 more for an average year’s motoring of 10,000 km, she said. A larger vehicle, such as a three tonne SUV, will cost an extra $49.20 per 10,000km.

A typical five tonne truck will pay an additional $53.80 per 10,000 kilometres, while a 23 tonne four-axle truck can expect to pay an additional $198.

10000km per year might be the average for a car, but I bet there's a hell of a lot of trucks on the road that do more than that per week!

Originally Posted by Annette King

The Government will now channel all fuel excise duty, RUC and motor vehicle registration fees into the National Land Transport Fund. This change, termed “full hypothecation”, will also come into effect from 1 July.

“Changes to the way revenue is channelled means that $600 million a year that petrol users previously paid into the general Crown revenue pool will now be dedicated to transport purposes,” Ms King said.

I used to think this was a good idea, but now I'm not so sure. It doesn't happen with health, education, policing or pretty much any other area of government spending, so why roading?

Originally Posted by Annette King