Strange silence
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T wholeheartedly agree with 1The Road Haulage Association's Tim Inman's comments in your Industry News story (CM 22-28 September) that the Department of Transport should give a guarantee to hauliers that there will be no further hikes in licence fees.
There seems to be a strange silence from officials on how the new levels of fees will look after the introduction of continuous 0licensing.
1 fear this means that, despite the Government's aim to deregulate, and therefore, reduce the burden on industry, that the DOT will simply be able to make cuts in its staff which process paperwork but keep the licence fee high. Surely that is the only way the DOT will be able to tackle its ,f..2m deficit which you highlight.
I hope the DOT realises that its introduction of continuous 0-licensing will be watched carefully by the industry: and if 0-licence fees are not at least held static, most of us will regard the whole "transport deregulation" exercise as being so much hot air. Maurice Charles Hastings.