R FTA Budget hints
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• Hauliers should either benefit from a differential tax on fuel, or a rebate as given to certain psv operators. This is one of the Budget suggestions put to the Chancellor of the Exchequer in a Road Haulage Association/Freight Transport Association joint memorandum. They remind him that fuel costs represent nearly 20 per cent of the total costs of commercial vehicle operators and more than 80 per cent of goods moved by road in the UK.
The Associations say that SET when applied to distributive trades works against the economic well-being of the country; hire or reward hauliers obtain refunds in due course but have to finance the interim cost by bank overdrafts; with own-account transport some undertakings obtain refunds, some do not.
"We feel that there is a very strong case for investment grants for road transport undertakings," say the Associations. "Such grants would encourage the purchase of new vehicles in the interests of efficiency as well as of safety."
The point is also stressed that a relatively small proportion (about 36 per cent) of the revenue obtained from road users is spent on roads; in France and Italy the figure is nearly 60 pc and in the USA almost 90 pc. The inadequacy of British roads, it is stated, was one of the reasons for the refusal by the Minister for Transport Industries to authorize "heavier and more economic vehicles".