Dunedin-based Road User Charges startup building New Zealand technology for understanding, comparing, purchasing, and managing RUC.
RUC on Rails Limited is a New Zealand Road User Charges technology startup founded in Dunedin in 2025. It builds consumer products and supporting infrastructure for a transport system in which more drivers are expected to understand, compare, purchase, and manage RUC. The company is 100 percent New Zealand owned and operated by co-founders Adam Johnston and Briyarne Pascoe. RUC on Rails owns and operates three distinct brands. RUC Hub is its public information and market-intelligence platform; RUC Compare helps drivers compare published provider prices, fees, deals, and purchase channels; and RUC Pass provides app-based RUC purchasing and vehicle management, with over-the-counter retail purchasing planned from 2027. The brands use separate identities because they perform different jobs, but they form a connected RUC product group under the same company. The startup also develops its core technology in-house. Kowalski structures and monitors public RUC market information used by RUC Hub and RUC Compare. RUC OS supports RUC Pass transactions and operations across app, web, and planned retail channels. Sentinel is the company's privacy-first distance-device research, designed to calculate distance without GPS tracking. Together, the products and systems position RUC on Rails as a specialist New Zealand RUC startup serving both immediate driver needs and the longer-term move towards a broader distance-based road charging market.
A free public platform for New Zealand RUC news, plain-language explainers, statistics, policy timelines, source documents, market intelligence, and practical tools. Its searchable library contains more than 2,150 curated records, while the market section documents government agencies, providers, technology companies, startups, and industry bodies involved in RUC.
A free, no-sign-up comparison service for major New Zealand RUC providers. Drivers enter a registration plate and distance to compare published total prices, provider fees, deals, payment options, and ways to buy. RUC Compare does not sell the licence; it directs the user to the selected provider.
A RUC purchasing and vehicle-management service available through an iOS and Android app. It supports vehicle linking, app-based purchases, RUC, WoF and registration information, order records, and invoices for up to 10 vehicles. An over-the-counter retail network is planned from 2027.
Market Intelligence & Structural Monitoring Engine
Kowalski is the proprietary data intelligence system that powers the research, comparison, and monitoring infrastructure behind RUC Hub and RUC Compare. It acquires, structures, and monitors publicly available information across the RUC ecosystem, transforming fragmented provider data into structured, queryable datasets. The system uses a three-layer extraction framework: deterministic rules for stable content, pattern-based logic for semi-structured data, and AI-assisted interpretation for ambiguous tables and PDFs. It continuously monitors tracked surfaces for meaningful changes in pricing, fees, disclosures, and layouts, with multi-stage validation including schema checks, cross-field integrity, and anomaly detection. Kowalski operates exclusively on public data with no authentication circumvention, respects rate limits, and follows a source governance process for all monitored surfaces.
Proprietary RUC Management & Transaction Platform
RUC OS is the operational backbone powering RUC Pass. Built entirely in-house, it is a purpose-built management system designed to process, govern, and reconcile Road User Charge transactions across multiple channels. The transaction engine handles complete lifecycle management from vehicle lookup and quote generation through purchase, settlement, reconciliation, and invoicing - every stage structured and auditable. It supports multiple sales channels including retail networks, web checkout, mobile app, and API integrations, with configurable channel requirements and smart routing. The settlement system features multi-ledger support, configurable pricing rule sets, automated batch processing, and detailed invoicing with GST handling and NZTA RUC pass-through tracking.
Autonomous Privacy-First OBD-II Distance Computation Device
Sentinel is a proprietary OBD-II hardware device developed during early automated RUC research phases. It was built as a distance engine, not a tracking device - it measures how far a vehicle has travelled, and nothing else. All primary distance computation occurs on-device using an ESP32-C3 (RISC-V) microcontroller running FreeRTOS. Distance is derived mathematically from vehicle motion data via the CAN bus interface, requiring no GPS, no mobile data, and no cloud dependency. The device uses a dual-mode measurement system: baseline OBD-II polling for universal vehicle support, and enhanced CAN extraction for higher-frequency sampling where available. Distance is persisted at fixed meter intervals with robustness guarantees against power interruption, vehicle shutdown, and connectivity loss.
RUC on Rails Limited was incorporated in August 2025 by co-founders Adam Johnston and Briyarne Pascoe in Dunedin. The company began developing a group of products focused specifically on New Zealand's Road User Charges system.
RUC Hub and RUC Compare established the group's information and provider-comparison services, while RUC Pass was developed as its purchasing and vehicle-management product.
RUC Pass became available as an iOS and Android app. RUC Hub expanded its research library, explainers, market intelligence, data, and integrated tools, while RUC Compare developed plate-based, distance-specific comparisons across major New Zealand RUC providers.
The company published plans for RUC Pass to begin an over-the-counter retail rollout from 2027, subject to the applicable regulatory framework and commercial rollout arrangements.
Co-founder & CEO
A University of Otago commerce graduate, Johnston spent six years at Delivereasy, beginning as a driver and later becoming a regional operations manager. At RUC on Rails he leads strategy, partnerships, government and industry engagement, consumer research, and go-to-market work. He led the company's Future RUC Consumer Expectations Research, including 1,098 face-to-face surveys across eight New Zealand cities and towns, which was presented at T-TECH 2026 and provided to the Ministry of Transport and NZTA. He also sits on the governance board of ITS New Zealand.
Co-founder, CTO & Director
Pascoe is an AWS-certified engineer with experience across public-sector software, startups, and transport technology, including development work on New Plymouth's public transport mobile app. During four years at Delivereasy he moved from operations into technology development. At RUC on Rails he leads engineering, architecture, integrations, and platform development across the customer-facing products and the transaction and data systems beneath them, including co-building RUC Pass and the group's operating systems.
RUC on Rails is a specialist New Zealand RUC technology startup. Its three brands cover connected parts of the driver journey: RUC Hub explains the system and documents the market, RUC Compare compares providers, and RUC Pass supports purchasing and vehicle management. The company is developing this product group as New Zealand modernises RUC and considers a broader shift from fuel excise to distance-based charging.
9362845
9429053041746
NZ Limited Company
08 Aug 2025
Hobson Towers, 26 Hobson Street, Suite 15587, Auckland, 1010, New Zealand
M700050 - Development of customised computer software nec
Adam Johnston
Dunedin, New Zealand
Briyarne Pascoe
Dunedin, New Zealand
1,000,000 total shares
Adam Johnston
500,000 shares · Dunedin, New Zealand
Briyarne Pascoe
500,000 shares · Dunedin, New Zealand
Source: NZ Companies Office · Last checked February 2026
View on Companies Register
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