ATA suggests maintenance incentive

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Prime Mover Magazine  /  December 12, 2016

Providing an incentive for fleets to carry out regular maintenance through a Fuel tax credit would help ensure vehicles meet emissions standards, the Australian Trucking Association (ATA) has suggested.

Legislative change to the Fuel Tax Act's current maintenance and testing criteria would encourage more regular vehicle maintenance, said ATA Vice Chair Geoff Crouch.

“Trucks need regular maintenance in order to meet emission standards and amending the eligibility for fuel tax credits would provide a powerful incentive for regular maintenance,” Crouch said.

“Contained within the Fuel Tax Act are a set of environmental conditions that for trucking operators must meet to qualify for fuel tax credits. 

“A truck has to be manufactured on or after 1 January 1996, or meet one of three maintenance or testing criteria,” he said.

When the Fuel Tax Act was first introduced, 61 per cent of the truck fleet was manufactured before 1996 and had to meet maintenance or testing criteria in order to claim fuel tax credits. In 2016 this has fallen to 33 per cent of the fleet.

“The ATA supports the removal of the 1996 criteria, which would see the entire existing truck fleet needing to meet a maintenance or testing criteria in order to qualify for fuel tax credits,” Crouch said.