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FARMERS are so sick of paying a small fortune to register their trailers in NSW they have been voting with their feet and heading north or south across the border to friendlier states to save their precious pennies.
“We’re only an hour from the Queensland border. We’d like our prices to be similar to them,” said fed-up grain farmer, Chris Troy, “Kalahari”, Walgett.
Concessions are available for primary producers who register their trailers in Victoria and Queensland, but no such scheme is available in NSW. Here, primary producers receive a concession on their vehicles only.
Mr Troy owns three tri-axle tipping trailers for carting grain and one dolly trailer. He uses his trailers on-farm and travels on public roads to transfer grain to end-users.
“It’s clear they’re low-use trailers, but we’re still paying the same as a trailer which runs 500,000 kilometres a year,” he said.
To register a tri-axle trailer in NSW costs a primary producer $1722. Registration fees are contingent on many factors in Queensland but it can be as low as $500. In Victoria, a primary producer will pay $690 to register a lead tri-axle and $344 for a back tri-axle.
To register a two-axle dolly trailer in NSW, farmers have to stump up $1148 while their Victorian counterparts are billed just $229. In Queensland, registration costs differ, but farmers can see a clear saving.
NSW offers a “spare trailer rebate” to help small to medium sized businesses save a dollar. Operators with one or two hauling units and no more than five trailers (excluding converter dollies) are eligible to apply for a rebate of 50 per cent on their registration costs.
Another Walgett farmer, Howard Wilson, “Maneroo”, was considering registering his trailers in Queensland to avoid the extra costs. His mate Jim O’Brien, “Euroka”, had made the switch.
Mr Wilson said he couldn’t afford to register his six tri-axle trailers and two dolly trailers year-round in NSW.
“At the current price we opt for quarterly registrations - it’s cheaper because the gear has been parked in the shed due to the drought,” Mr Wilson said.
Commercial grain carriers also gripe about the registration fees they face. Harvest contractor Lindsay Northcott, Young, incurs “horrendous” costs to register his fleet of trailers.
NSW Roads and Freight Minister Duncan Gay said his government had removed stamp duty on trailers; introduced width concessions for wool, hay, cotton and straw bales, and ditched permits for several over-size loads.
He said infrastructure expenditure was an important factor in the issue – and NSW’s roads budget “is more than the entire capital budget for Queensland”.
