44 Bowen Street
Private Bag 6995
Wellington 6141
New Zealand
T 64 4 894 5400
F 64 4 894 6100
www.nzta.govt.nz
28 January 2026
Victor Corbett
[FYI request #33226 email]
REF: OIA-20611
Dear Victor
Request made under the Official Information Act 1982
Thank you for your email
of 11 December 2025 requesting the fol owing information under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act):
This request concerns the “administration fee” currently charged when an unpaid toll becomes
a Toll Payment Notice,…
Process description
Please provide a step-by-step description of how an unpaid tol becomes a Tol Payment
Notice, identifying which steps are automated and which require manual work. For any manual
steps, please state which staff roles are involved and the average time spent per notice.
Cost breakdown for the $4.90 fee
Please provide a complete breakdown of the “administration fee” of $4.90, including al cost
components (such as labour, IT systems, overhead, printing/postage, and any contractor or
back-office charges) and the methodology used to calculate the per-notice cost.
Legal compliance documents
Please provide any documents, reviews, or assessments that NZTA/Waka Kotahi relies on to
confirm that the $4.90 fee complies with section 4 of the Land Transport (Administrative Fees
for Recovery of Unpaid Tolls) Regulations 2008, specifically the requirement that the fee
reflect the actual and reasonable cost of recovering the unpaid tol .
I have responded to each part of your request in turn below.
Process description
If a trip is made on a toll road, and there is no payment arrangements in place (either a toll account or
pre-purchased trip pass), a Toll Payment Notice is generated to the Registered Person and posted to
their physical address. This contains the $4.90 Administration Fee.
This process has many automated steps:
1. identify trips that have exceeded the 5 working days al owed to pay
2. check the Motor Vehicle Register to obtain the Registered Person and Address details
3. create Tol Payment Notice file for processing and place on server
4. upload file from server and generate PDF versions of each Tol Payment Notice
5. create the print file of al notices and transfer to printing house
6. print, envelope and lodge notices with NZ Post for sending
The automated process for creating notices starts in the early evening and runs overnight through to
the next day with notices lodged in the post by the end of the day.
Cost breakdown for the $4.90 fee
The administration charge is set to recover al costs related to toll payment notices. The methodology
used when setting the Administration Fee is reviewed by the Regulatory Review Committee initial y
when being set and is fundamentally the ‘costs related to notices’.
The high- level components are summarised below:
Component
$ Cost (GST Exclusive)
Notice – Physical Creation/Issuing
$1.06
Mailhouse process
0.48
Stationery and postage
0.58
Payment Processing
$1.68
Phones and Personnel for Call Centre Payments
1.16
Merchant and Bank fees for Al Notice Payments
0.52
General
$2.16
Notice Enquiries via Phone or Email
0.20
System Costs and Overheads
1.30
GST
0.64
Rounding
0.02
TOTAL
$4.90
Legal compliance documents
No formal documentation exists, as such, this part of your request has been refused under section
18(e) as the document al eged to contain the information requested does not exist.
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However, we can confirm that when this fee review was completed, it was reviewed by both the
Regulatory Review Committee and by the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) Board to ensure
it reflected recovery of actual and reasonable costs.
Under section 28 of the Act, you have the right to ask the Ombudsman to review my decision to refuse
part of this request. The contact details for the Ombudsman can be located at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz.
In line with NZTA policy, this response wil soon be published on our website, with personal
information removed.
If you would like to discuss this reply with NZTA, please contact Ministerial Services, by email to
[NZTA request email].
Yours sincerely
Caitlin McInnarney
Acting Team Lead Government and Ministerial Services
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