IIIIEDITOR'S COMMENT
Page 5
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SEEING RED
• How would you feel if you were standing in your local supping an expensive pint and someone walked in, strolled behind the bar, pulled himself a pint and left without paying?
Pretty hard done by, probab y — particu arly if the barman watched the whole affair without batting an eyelid.
Legitimate hauliers sitting at Dover seeing other drivers roll up with barely concealed tanks full of untaxed red diesel must feel the same. They know that no matter how efficiently they try to run their operations, the cowboy down the road, who competes for the same rates, can nip to the Continent on half-price fuel with about as much chance of being picked up by Italian Customs men as he does by Sophia Loren.
UK Customs officials can only stand and watch as dodgy operators, using belly tanks full to the brim with red derv, roll by. And they are powerless to do anything about it. Why? Because they don't have the right to dip tanks that aren't used for running. What nonsense. If an operator fills a belly tank with red diesel you can be sure he isn't taking it for a ride. He intends to use and profit from it. If the Government can't see that, and give HM Customs the power to catch the cheats then it must be blind.
Once again the law-abiding haulier who makes the effort to stay above board suffers. As with operator licensing, overloading and vehicle excise duty, weak enforcement of the law makes a joke of the objectives the legislation is designed to achieve . . a level paying fied on which hauliers can compete fairly and effectively.