Tax man agrees to overnight pay rise
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• Drivers are to get a 9.3% increase in their overnight subsistence tax-free payments, taking the allowance to 218.15.
Where sleeper cabs are used the tax-free payment will be limited to 75% of the 218.15.
These payments, which have been agreed with the Inland Revenue following a proposal from the Road Haulage Association, will be backdated to 1 January 1991.
Where hauliers pay their drivers more than the threshold figure, the same 9.3% increase will apply. The increase is based on the retail price index figure for the preceding December — last year's tax-free allowance was 216.60.
The RHA's employment affairs manager, Rod Jenkins, stresses that international overnight subsistence payments should be agreed with local tax inspectors.
However, Mike Billingham of Owner Operators UK says that the increases are not keeping pace with the real rise in drivers' costs.
"The increases are almost immediately wiped out by the truckstops putting their charges up," he says. "Over the years the driver is getting less value for money."
Billingham is also unhappy with the reduced allowance paid to drivers with sleeper cabs: "It's wrong that someone who is sleeping in his cab should be paid less," he says, because drivers away from home overnight deserve better places to sleep, park and eat.