Company Gains With RUC

With endless paperwork and fines for not topping up in time, RUC can be a burden. But it doesn’t have to be.

Upkeep on New Zealand roads is funded by fuel taxes and, in the case of light diesel and heavy vehicles, Road User Charges (RUC) based on distance travelled. The heavier your vehicles, the more you’re required to pay. If you have a fleet of hundreds of vehicles, the RUC costs can be substantial. However, if you regularly use your vehicles off-road, your business is eligible for refunds from the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA). To make a refund claim, you need highly accurate data, and managing the process manually can be painfully time-consuming.

Streamlining procedures

A GPS fleet management system in conjunction with a RUC Management system stops you from drowning in paperwork. You get a real-time overview of the distance your vehicles have travelled using high definition data, on or off road, and makes it easy to submit a RUC refund claim, minimising paperwork and reducing the time it takes to complete. The Teletrac Navman DIRECTOR Maintenance Module also provides the visibility you need to ensure fleet servicing schedules meet your obligations. The reporting tools put information at your fingertips to save you hunting through filing cabinets for an old receipt or maintenance book.

Company gains

Cambridge Bees produces and exports bee products including honey, bee pollen and propolis and they’ve racked up significant savings on Road User Charges (RUC) since installing Teletrac Navman in 2013.

“Before we got a GPS fleet management system, it was too difficult to work out the RUC” says owner Richard Haddrell.

“We never knew how many kilometres we were doing off-road, so we never submitted claims. But now the system provides all the information we need then links to a PDF form. It just makes it ridiculously simple to send the claim form to the NZTA.”

Similarly, Taylors Contracting, a civil contracting company which specialises in earthmoving, civil construction, forestry infrastructure and quarrying services, sought out a telematics solution for their business.

For Taylors Contracting, claiming back Road User Charges (RUC) was the initial reason for installing GPS fleet management system Teletrac Navman last year. The forestry division alone of Taylors Contracting does around 12 per cent of all travel off road, but hadn’t previously been able to claim back the RUC.

“Since installing the GPS vehicle tracking system, we’ve been able to claim back over $8,500 in RUC,” says Ben Burbidge, Assistant Accountant at Taylors Contracting.

“That’s a significant sum of money in a relatively short space of time, so we’re pretty happy about that.”

With fleets constantly on the road to meet deadlines, make deliveries and keep customers happy, it pays to have our roads in top condition, but managing your RUC in order to do so doesn’t have to be a pain. Save money on RUC and include it in your company gains.

GPS based fleet management can also increase your business' productivity, download our free Connecting The Dots eBook to find out how.