How governments will pay for new roads, upgrades and maintenance in a post-fuel future is an increasingly pressing issue.
Most governments around the world collect fuel excise on every litre or gallon of petrol and diesel.
Revenue from fuel excise contributes towards the construction and maintenance of roads. As vehicles become more fuel efficient and people transition to electric vehicles this revenue source will decline.
A potential alternative is road-user charging, where motorists would pay for their usage, with charges set for each trip taken, each kilometre travelled or at a capped daily rate.
Transurban has long advocated for a road-user charging model to replace the current system.
A road user charge provides the opportunity to address the unfairness of the current system. Under the current fuel excise model, drivers of electric vehicles, hybrids and newer more fuel-efficient drivers contribute less to road funding, while those with older, less fuel-efficient vehicles pay more. A road-user charge could ensure everyone contributes based on how much they use the roads, regardless of vehicle type.
At the same time, it’s important that any future funding model continues to support the transition to electric vehicles. Road-user charging could be designed to encourage uptake of EVs while still ensuring a fair contribution to road maintenance.
We know from our research that most people think a road-user charge would be a fairer way to pay for road funding.
We believe that the customer needs to be at the heart of any road user charging system, so we’re working with industry to explore how we can support and shape road user charging developments.
Explore our research
In 2016, we undertook the first real-world test of user-pays road charging in Australia. Participants tested three usage-based charging options and we found that the Australian community is open funding alternatives, particularly when they understand the benefits reform can bring.
In 2021, we asked participants to evaluate two funding models (fuel excise vs road use charging) based on descriptions of the current system and a hypothetical per-kilometre road-user charge. After comparing both models we found most people preferred a road-user charge, and preference for the current funding model decreased after respondents learned sticking with the current model may potentially lead to reduced government funding for future roads and infrastructure projects.
Since 2022, we’ve partnered with the US-based Eastern Transportation Coalition to develop and explore the implementation of technologies that would make mileage-based-user-fee transportation funding a reality. In 2023, we also supported the first RUC trial in the state of California to process real-money transactions.
