The Australian Trucking Association has called for all diesel heavy vehicles used on public roads to be required to meet one of the three maintenance criteria to be eligible for fuel tax credits.
The ATA’s recommendations came in response to the Federal Government’s Ministerial Forum on Vehicle Emissions Vehicle Emissions Discussion Paper, which was released for public comment in February.
Currently, heavy vehicles can receive the fuel tax credit if they meet one of four environmental criteria:
- if it was manufactured on or after 1 January 1996;
- the vehicle is registered in an audited maintenance program accredited by the Transport Secretary (such as TruckSafe);
- it has passed a DT80 in service emissions test within the last two years; or
- the vehicle complies with a maintenance schedule endorsed by the Transport Secretary.
When these criteria were set in place, 61% of trucks registered in Australia were manufactured before 1996, and therefore had to meet one of the other criteria to be eligible.
Today, only 33% of the fleet need to meet these criteria.
The ATA’s submission says that, given the importance of maintenance to achieving emission standards, the 1996 threshold should be removed entirely. This would mean that all heavy diesel vehicles used on public roads would need to meet one of the maintenance / test criteria to be eligible for fuel tax credits.
In developing this submission, the ATA began by looking at the option of changing the 1 January 1996 threshold to 1 January 2008, the commencement date for ADR80/02 for all new trucks.
The ATA says this option was considered because it would bring the proportion of trucks within the scope of the maintenance/test criteria back to about 2006 levels (69% versus 61% in 2006).
After consideration, however, the ATA says it decided against recommending this approach, because a heavy vehicle’s maintenance requirements depend on its duty cycle, not its age.
The interdepartmental working group will report to the Ministerial Forum in June 2016 on ways to address vehicle emissions.
Minister for the Environment, Greg Hunt, says the Australian Government is considering potential options to reduce both noxious emissions and carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles.
“Around 17% Australia's greenhouse gas emissions are from transport,” he says. “ In cities such as Sydney on-road motor-vehicles can contribute around 60% of some noxious air pollutants. The paper examines options for improving standards for air pollutants and fuel efficiency (CO2) standards, ways to better educate and inform consumers, alternative fuels and electric vehicles, the use of incentives and bolstering emissions testing arrangements.”