Victoria’s Road-User Economy: $1.75 Billion a Year and Counting
More than $3,300 every minute. What Deliver’s first three reviews reveal about the real cost of moving across Victoria.
The Scale Identified So Far
More than $1.75 billion annually. Approximately $3,300 every minute. Across just three disclosed road-user revenue streams.
Three articles into Deliver's six-part review of Victoria's road-user economy, one thing has become increasingly clear: Victorians are not paying just one charge to move.
They are paying into an interconnected system of parking fees, parking fines, State infringements, Melbourne toll roads, administration charges, vehicle registration, taxes and enforcement fees.
Each charge has its own justification. Each operates under different rules. Yet very few are ever examined together to understand the total financial impact on Victorian motorists, businesses and the freight transport industry.
When we began this series, we wanted to apply the same disciplines Deliver uses when reviewing a customer's supply chain:
What is the complete cost?
What measurable value is being received?
Where are the inefficiencies?
Who ultimately pays?
Because whether we are examining freight management, transport infrastructure or government charges, the principle remains the same.
If you cannot see the complete cost, how can you determine whether you are receiving value?
Part 1: The Parking Fine Paradox
Are Victorian parking fines becoming a revenue stream rather than a deterrent?
Our first review examined the growing financial contribution of parking fines and infringement revenue across Victorian local councils.
Four metropolitan councils alone reported approximately $84.5 million in selected parking- and infringement-related income during 2024–25.
To put that into perspective:
$84.5 million every year.
Approximately $231,500 every day.
Approximately $9,650 every hour.
Approximately $161 every minute.
And this represents just four councils, not Victoria's entire local government parking and infringement system.
Parking fees are generally additional to fine revenue.
The City of Melbourne, for example, reported $36.5 million in parking fines and another $48.6 million in parking fees during 2023–24.
That is more than $85 million across two parking-related revenue streams in a single financial year.
Parking enforcement serves an important purpose. It supports traffic movement, access and the turnover of limited parking spaces.
But there is a broader economic question that deserves attention.
When parking becomes increasingly expensive and enforcement increasingly automated, what impact does that have on local businesses, customers and activity centres?
The Customer Question
Are we managing parking more effectively, or gradually discouraging customers from visiting the very businesses and communities these systems are meant to support?
Part 2: Victoria's Expanding Fine Economy
The growing cost of road enforcement and traffic infringements
Our second review examined Victoria's State infringement system and the scale of fine revenue collected through road safety and compliance enforcement.
During 2024–25, Victoria recognised approximately $680 million in State fine income.
That equates to:
$680 million every year.
Approximately $1.86 million every day.
Approximately $77,600 every hour.
Approximately $1,294 every minute.
Fines Victoria also processed 1,832,840 infringement notices during the financial year.
That is approximately 5,000 notices every day.
These figures do not suggest that road enforcement is unnecessary or that fines are improperly motivated.
Road safety, speed compliance and responsible driving remain essential to protecting Victorian motorists, pedestrians and transport operators.
However, when an enforcement system becomes highly automated, financially significant, indexed and incorporated into government budgets, an important question emerges.
Is the ultimate measure of success the amount of revenue collected, or the improvement in driver behaviour and road safety outcomes?
The Final Test
If road safety improved, compliance increased and fine revenue fell dramatically, would that be celebrated as a successful outcome or treated as a budget problem?
Part 3: The Cost of Moving in Victoria
Melbourne toll roads and the hidden cost of freight transport
Our third review moved beyond parking and infringement revenue to examine one of the most significant ongoing costs for Victorian motorists and transport businesses: Melbourne's toll-road network.
Transurban reported approximately $987 million in proportional Melbourne toll revenue during 2024–25, excluding EastLink.
That represents:
$987 million every year.
Approximately $2.70 million every day.
Approximately $112,700 every hour.
Approximately $1,878 every minute.
For everyday motorists, toll charges may appear to be relatively small individual expenses.
For freight operators managing multiple vehicles, regular delivery routes and time-sensitive supply chains, the financial impact can be considerably greater.
Deliver's Altona-to-Dandenong toll-cost sensitivity model demonstrated that one regularly operating heavy commercial vehicle could incur approximately $57,000 to $85,000 in toll charges annually, depending on vehicle classification and travel assumptions.
Across a fleet of ten vehicles, that becomes approximately $570,000 to $855,000 every year.
These are not insignificant operating expenses.
They form part of the wider cost of freight transport in Victoria, influencing carrier pricing, freight rates, customer delivery costs and ultimately the cost of goods.
And the question is not simply how much the toll road costs.
It is what value that expenditure delivers.
If a toll route saves only five minutes per movement, Deliver's model indicates that the effective toll cost could reach approximately $342 for every productive hour recovered for a heavy commercial vehicle, or $513 for a long heavy vehicle.
Of course, toll roads can provide genuine commercial benefits.
More reliable journey times, reduced congestion, lower fuel consumption, less vehicle wear and improved delivery performance can all create measurable value.
But those benefits should be independently assessed against the cost, rather than automatically assumed.
The Freight Industry Question
Are Melbourne's toll roads delivering measurable transport efficiencies, or are rising toll charges becoming another cost that businesses and consumers are simply expected to absorb?
The Bigger Picture: $1.75 Billion Across Three Revenue Streams
When we bring together the findings from Deliver's first three reviews, the scale of Victoria's road-user economy becomes difficult to ignore.
Consider just three disclosed figures:
$84.5 million from selected parking and infringement income categories across four Victorian councils.
$680 million in recognised Victorian State fine income.
$987 million in proportional Melbourne toll revenue reported by Transurban.
Combined, these figures represent approximately:
$1.75 billion every year.
$4.8 million every day.
$200,000 every hour.
More than $3,300 every minute.
And this is before considering the broader range of road-user charges, registration expenses, vehicle taxes, additional toll-road operators and other costs associated with moving people and goods across Victoria.
An Important Accounting Distinction
These figures should not be interpreted as one consolidated Victorian Government revenue total.
The revenue streams have different recipients, accounting treatments and reporting periods.
Ordinary toll revenue is collected by private toll-road operators, while State and council infringement income is accounted for separately. Some figures also represent selected categories rather than complete revenue systems.
The purpose of bringing them together is not to suggest they are interchangeable.
It is to demonstrate the financial scale of the wider road-user economy surrounding transport, mobility and commercial activity across Victoria.
And importantly, these figures are not necessarily additive without qualification, particularly where government and council reporting categories may overlap.
The real issue is not who collects each dollar. It is the cumulative cost of moving across Victoria and the value received in return.
The Largest Question May Still Be Ahead
Melbourne toll roads, the West Gate Tunnel and the road to 2045
While the first three reviews have identified significant annual revenue streams, the longer-term financial commitments associated with Melbourne's toll-road infrastructure may be even more consequential.
The Victorian Parliamentary Budget Office previously estimated approximately $37 billion in additional nominal toll revenue through 2044–45 arising from the West Gate Tunnel arrangements, including changes to CityLink tolls and tolls associated with the new network.
This is a long-term revenue estimate across the arrangements, not a current outstanding government bill.
Nevertheless, it demonstrates the magnitude and duration of Melbourne's toll-road commitments.
These arrangements extend well into the working lives of the next generation of Victorian motorists, business owners and freight operators.
For businesses already navigating rising fuel costs, transport compliance requirements, labour pressures and supply chain complexity, long-term toll escalation introduces another financial consideration.
It raises questions about transport affordability, infrastructure funding, commercial productivity and the long-term competitiveness of Victoria's freight network.
In Part 4 of Deliver's six-part review, Melbourne's Road to 2045, we will examine:
What Transurban committed and what Victorian taxpayers contributed.
Why the CityLink toll-road concession was extended to 2045.
How toll charges are indexed and what that means for future transport costs.
What motorists, freight operators and businesses may ultimately pay.
What measurable value current and future generations should expect in return.
The Real Cost of Moving: Who Ultimately Pays?
This series is not suggesting that road enforcement should disappear or that every road should be free.
Infrastructure must be funded. Road rules must be enforced. Parking must be managed.
But when the system operates at this financial scale, transparency, proportionality and measurable value should be fundamental expectations.
For the freight and logistics industry, these costs do not exist in isolation.
They become part of the total cost of transport.
A freight carrier may initially pay the toll. A transport business may absorb the increase. A customer may see it reflected in freight rates or delivery charges.
Eventually, those costs flow through supply chains, local businesses and household expenses.
This is why understanding the complete cost of transport matters.
At Deliver, we see firsthand how individual charges, operational inefficiencies and fragmented cost structures can compound across a supply chain.
The same principles we apply to freight management should apply to the wider road-user economy.
What are we paying?
What value are we receiving?
And are we measuring the difference?
Because whether it is a toll charge, a parking fee or a freight invoice, a cost should not be accepted as efficient simply because it has become familiar.
The Question Behind the Series
How much are Victorians paying simply to move, and what measurable value are they receiving in return?
Our first three reviews have identified more than $1.75 billion annually across selected road-user revenue streams.
But the full picture is far from complete.
As Melbourne's transport infrastructure expands and the cost of road use continues to influence freight pricing, business operations and household expenses, these questions become increasingly important.
Parts 1–3 of Deliver's six-part review are now available.
Coming next: Part 4 — Melbourne's Road to 2045.
From a Logistician's Viewpoint.
Deliver Group | Technology-enabled freight management focused on performance, transparency and continuous improvement.