Ngā utu me ngā ara kohi pūtea mō ngā waka Transport costs and charges

This Domestic Transport Costs and Charges study aims to improve our understanding of the costs of the provision and use of New Zealand’s domestic transport system. It also looks at costs relative to the charges or burdens facing transport users to improve our understanding of the economic, environmental and social costs associated with different domestic transport modes and movement types.

This report provides a socio-economic and financial appraisal of the existing New Zealand domestic transport sector (as it was in 2018/19, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic). It covers urban/local and longer-distance travel, covering both person and freight movements, using the road system (private vehicles and public transport, walking and cycling, truck transport), the rail system (freight movements, urban and longer distance passenger movements) and water-borne transport (urban ferry and inter-island ferry services).

The study finds that the total annual economic costs involved in the NZ domestic transport sector are approximately NZ$125 billion, which represents an annual average of about NZ $25,000 per head of the NZ population, for 2018/19.

The DTCC does not aim to deliver any conclusions about how costs or charges can or should be changed in the future. The study outputs will encourage policy decisions in the transport and related sectors based on sound evidence. When used with information on other benefits and costs of policy proposals, this information can help with policy problem definition, assessment of multi-modal policy and investment, greenhouse gas emissions interventions, social and environmental impacts and transport funding and charging system.

The DTCC study has the following documentation that details the methodologies, the data, and the cost and charges estimates across different modes of transport.

• Scoping report (May 2020)(external link)
• Main report (June 2023)  [PDF, 1.8 MB]

The main report provides a summary of the study findings based on the working papers. It brings together the findings from all aspects of the study, including cross-modal comparisons. The Study was undertaken for Te Manatū Waka Ministry of Transport by a consultant consortium led by Ian Wallis Associates Ltd. Peer review inputs have been provided by the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds (UK), supplemented by a local review team of staff from Te Manatū Waka, Waka Kotahi (the NZ Transport Agency, NZTA) and other government agencies.