Ford Falcon Ute toll road cash grab

If you drive a Falcon ute and commute in Melbourne you could be in for a shock.

An apparent bureaucratic back-flip and re-categorisation of vehicle types has led to owners of Ford Falcon utes paying nearly $3 more per toll-road trip than equivalent Falcon sedans and wagons (or indeed Commodore Ute drivers) on Melbourne's CityLink toll road network.

That figure, based on a one-way trip from Toorak Road in the south to Bulla Road in the North, is calculated from the passenger-car rate of $8.69, versus the light commercial vehicle (LCV) rate of $11.57 for the Falcon Ute.

The extra $6 per trip being charged by CityLink (for a daily return trip from south to north) would cost users over $1400 extra per year. That's on top of the $4171 CityLink users would pay in the same circumstances for a passenger car.

The issue has come to light after a report in local news media, but the story has national ramifications, given Transurban, the operator of CityLink, also runs tollways in Sydney and Brisbane.

And it's not just CityLink applying the higher toll rate to the Falcon Ute; Melbourne's EastLink – operated by a different company, ConnectEast – is also now classifying the Ford as an LCV.

motoring.com.au understands a recent review of vehicle type classification by CityLink (legally permitted within the terms of the contract between CityLink and the Victorian state government) was the catalyst for the change of toll rate for the Falcon Ute.

Vehicles including the post-1998 Falcon Ute, the Holden One Tonner and the Holden Crewman are listed in the vehicle identification data supplied to CityLink and EastLink as 'hybrid' construction vehicles, with a GVM (gross vehicle mass) between 1.5 and 4.5 tonnes.

CityLink (and, it's believed, EastLink) have changed the operating parameters for toll classification within recent weeks, prompting the outrage from owners of the above mentioned vehicles formerly classified as passenger vehicles and now classified as LCVs.

Previously, any vehicle in the GVM range with a 'chassis' construction was treated as an LCV. But now the parameters have turned around: any vehicle in the GVM range with a monocoque construction (including, ironically, large vans, by the way) is a passenger vehicle. Everything else in the same GVM range is now considered an LCV.

Since AU Falcon Utes and later, plus the One Tonner and Crewman are listed in the vehicle identification data as having a 'hybrid' construction (part monocoque, part chassis), they were excluded from being classified as LCVs in the past. That's no longer the case.

Vehicles now being charged at the higher (LCV) rate could number in the tens of thousands. Earlier Falcon Utes and most Commodore-derived utes are unaffected, however, says Transurban's Communications Advisor, Bridget Brady.

"It's not all Ford Falcon Utes," Ms Brady told motoring.com.au earlier today.

"Post-1998 models – is what I understand – have a cab-chassis construction, and therefore very clearly meet the criteria for an LCV."

"We've only been contacting Ford Falcon Utes [owners] with the cab-chassis construction."

Back in 1999, not long after the AU Falcon Ute was released, Transurban requested a recommendation about the vehicle from the data supplier, RL Polk. The advice in response was to treat the Ford as a passenger vehicle, not an LCV.

At that time, the Falcon Ute was not considered a full chassis cab vehicle, as defined by the federal Department of Infrastructure and Transport, which describes a chassis as follows: "The basic operating motor vehicle including engine frame & other essential structural and mechanical parts but exclusive of body and all appurtenances for the accommodation of driver, property and passengers appliances, or equipment related to other than control".

Remove the Falcon's monocoque body from the Ute, and you no longer have a 'basic operating motor vehicle'. This was the original logic underpinning the decision to rate the Falcon Ute as a passenger vehicle. It's not mounted on a full-length chassis, unlike vehicles such as the Toyota HiLux, Mitsubishi Triton and Ford's own Ranger.

Ford Australia, which has only recently built its final Falcon Ute has been asked to respond.