This week James Smith, NRC GM of Policy & Advocacy and I appeared at the Transport & Infrastructure Select Committee to discuss our submission on ‘Time of Use Charging’.

Time of use charging is jargon for congestion charging, where vehicles are charged a fee to use a transport network or enter a cordoned area at peak times. It is designed to ease congestion by driving behavioural changes where people opt to use public transport or take the discretionary trip at a different time of day.

Congestion needs to be tackled – it is the thief that continues to pick the pocket of transport operators through lost driver hours, lost delivery runs, increased fuel burn and other costs.

Done well, congestion charging could see traffic fall to levels similar to those seen at school holidays, only year round.

This means more freight can be delivered more frequently. A metro operator constrained to three runs a day could increase to four if congestion eased. 

We want to win the war on congestion without endlessly building more roads. This means getting smarter in how the existing road network is used. Time of use charging done well drives optimal road use, and has worked in cities overseas. 

Let’s give it every chance of success here. 

What we said to the select committee

1. Central government should maintain control over time of use schemes, not local councils. They are complex to design, and can easily have unintended consequences, such as driving congestion to other parts of the network. The expertise needed to design them sits at the national, not the local government level. 

2. The freight sector must be consulted on any time of use scheme charging design, so that distortions are not introduced to the supply chain.

3. They are not used to generate revenue. The charge should recover the direct costs required to implement the scheme, and the amount required to incentivise the change in behaviour. The sole aim is to reduce congestion, not be a new revenue stream. This is another reason why central government needs to control congestion charging schemes, not cash-starved councils.

4. Road freight should pay a fair congestion charge. Road transport operators want reduced congestion, and get a productivity gain from it. Freight customers are prepared to pay for faster deliveries, and more frequent deliveries, so it is only fair that freight operators are charged for the benefit.  Exemptions are very complicated to deliver, and the more exemptions the less likely congestion will be reduced, delivering an own goal.

Justin Tighe-Umbers, Chief Executive, National Road Carriers Assn