Australia’s governments should only increase truck road user and registration charges by the expected inflation rate, 1.5 per cent, in 2021-22, the ATA submission in response to the NTC’s 2021 heavy vehicle charges consultation report says.

The report proposes an increase of 2.5 per cent.

The ATA submission draws on a survey of trucking businesses, which shows that more than a third of the businesses were still experiencing a downturn in business activity compared to immediately before the bushfires and the start of the pandemic.

The survey also confirms that trucking businesses have great difficulty passing charge increases on to their customers.

The submission includes a detailed comparison of the impact of the NTC and ATA recommendations on the registration charges for six common truck types and the heavy vehicle road user charge.