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We all pay the price
Page 7
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Tolls, congestion charging, road user charging—try as we might to ignore them, it seems there's no escape for our industry: we are going to have to pay more to use roads almost everywhere (see p8).
It's worrying too that there seems to be almost no co-ordination between European countries considering introducing such schemes. Germany's toll, due to start on August 31, has come under considerable criticism in the last few months. Now it seems Austria is to introduce a road charging system too—only it will be completely different to its neighbour's scheme.
Where's the sense in that?
At least the European Union's decision to look at road charging is welcome—but isn't it leaving it rather late, with only a month before one of its member states starts to charge for using its roads? And just how long will it take to produce its findings?
For hauliers within the UK, the London Congestion Charge is a more immediate concern—and an expensive one at that. In return for paying upwards of L.5 a day to drive into central London, operators are getting exactly what?