II The Freight Transport Association admitted last week that British trucks pay the right levels of tax.
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In the same week that FTA director-general David Green went to Downing Street to demand reductions in diesel and road taxes, FTA economist Simon Chapman appeared on the Radio 4 Today programme to admit that haulage taxes barely cover the damage that goods vehicles inflict on roads and the environment.
Chapman agreed with a government report published in June that says the cost to the country of running a truck is £28,000. On average UK trucks pay around £25,000.
He then pointed out that
French hauliers pay just £11,000 while their Dutch counterparts pay just £10,000 per year.
Chapman told CM 'What I was trying to say was that it is immaterial whether UK trucks are not paying their way, if trucks paying even less are arriving from abroad to take UK operators' work.
"I was trying to explain that there was no point in the government setting tax levels in isolation as it would only have the effect of encouraging foreign hauliers to enter the UK."
• There was one consolation for Chapman—when one national newspaper followed up the story, it attributed his Radio 4 comments to the Road Haulage Association.