LETTER OF THE WEEK
Page 18
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Too much red tape ruins the fun of driving an HGV
IN THIS TROUBLED time for the British economy, I wonder if the government realises just how much tax on fuel duty the haulage industry is actually paying and how big an effect it is having on our companies.
If the average lorry uses 300 litres of fuel per day at 58.95ppl in duty, that’s a whopping £176.85 per day that each truck pays to the government.
I’ve been an owner-driver in the haulage industry for 30 years. I’m paying a large amount for just one lorry, so think about how much the big boys must pay. Then there are European vehicles coming over here with 1,000 litres-plus of fuel on board, with two low-paid drivers, paying no taxes or fuel duty. Is it any wonder we are having a hard time?
Something has got to give. Why not gives us a rebate on commercial use of diesel, the same that the agricultural industry enjoys? There are enough agricultural vehicles doing lorry jobs on rebated fuel anyway, so give us a level playing ield (that’s besides MoT, CPC qualiications and Olicensing that lorries have to have).
On the subject of Driver CPC: how can the government tell me that it can take my licence away from me, which I paid for myself, if I don’t park my lorry up for ive days to go and listen to someone tell me how to do a job that they have never done themselves?
Nobody pays me when my lorry is stood still, so that’s a week’s wages I lose. There is also the cost of the course. Don’t get me wrong: anyone new coming into the industry should get all the training they need, but to tell us mature drivers how to do it is both demeaning and insulting.
This industry is being sucked dry by legislation and red tape. There is only so much we can absorb before we become saturated and come to a standstill.
Billy Ford Owner-driver Retford, Nottinghamshire