Thumbs down to extra lorry tax
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RHA
RIDICULOUS! That's how the Road Haulage Association sums up plans in the Government Green Paper on Transport Policy to put even more tax on to the heavy lorry.
The Association said that there is no case for charging goods vehicles an even greater share than before of the cost of providing roads. This had to be seen against a situation where some hauliers are already paying £6,000 or even more in special taxation on each vehicle each year.
Annual average operating costs for all commercial vehicles would be put up by 5 per cent and scme of the heaviest trucks by 15 per cent if tax proposals in the Green Paper become law. (CM April 16 also page 26 in this issue.) To justify such huge increases the paper claims that in the past few years the levels of fuel and licence taxes have fallen behind and that lorries no longer cover their track costs. And it says that those which do the most damage must pay the price.
"What puts the final ridiculous touch to the tax proposal," said the RHA, "is that the people on whose behalf it would be levied would reap no advantage.
"The only change they will notice will be the higher prices which extra taxation must bring to goods in the shops."
The RHA also said that it was surprised at the suggestion that goods vehicle operators should bear the burden for environmental costs.
"There is no more logic in this than in charging Electricity Boards for the environmental offence given by power stations and pylons. Any nuisance created by lorries is more than counter-balanced by the benefits which road transport has given to the community."
Despite all this the RHA said it was in agreement with much of the rest of the document.
It supported the "more positive approach" to the environmental issue which the Green Paper suggests. Attention should be concentrated on improving vehicle standards, on tightening up control over entry into the industry and on providing an adequate road system.
The affirmation of the need to preserve freedom of choice for transport users was also welcome, as was the unequivocal rejection of the myth that there is a more than negligible proportion of goods traffic that could be transferred to rail.
The RHA is studying the document in detail before making its submissions to the Secretary of State.