'UK hauliers put up with everything or are ellcouraged to break the lair
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object to paying vehicle excise duty • in this country and road tolls abroad, when foreign hauliers can come here free of charge. I have raised the problem with my MP, the Department of Transport and the Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency, but nobody wants to know.
I am required to tax my trucks in the UK 52 weeks of the year. Out of that they can only work for approximately 40 weeks due to French, Italian and English public holidays.
PENALISED
On average my trucks only spend seven to 10 hours a week on UK roads; that only increases when there are roadworks. The driver's hours are ticking away while he is held up. We are continually penalised in one way or another. Vehicle excise duty is supposed to be for the maintenance of the roads, but only a small proportion is spent on that.
What annoys me is that I have to pay in the UK and then go on to the Continent and pay through the nose for using their roads. My trucks pay £99.89 in French road tolls, £31 in Italian tolls and £66 tunnel fees each way, and if they transit Switzerland they pay a Swiss transit tax of about £6.14.
I am not against foreign hauliers but I am against the system. Foreign truckers can come into the UK totally free of charge. They are not required to pay English vehicle excise duty, transit tax or road tolls. If I operate in their country I have to pay their road tolls.
British hauliers pay the third highest tax on diesel in Europe and the second highest vehicle excise duty. To rub salt into the wounds, we have to pay English road tax up front — six or 12 months in advance.
I am also faced with a Sunday driving ban on the Continent while there is no ban on Sunday driving in this country. UK hauliers put up with everything or are encouraged to break the law by not taxing their vehicles.
Foreign operators would not stand for it. If this was France hauliers would be blockading the roads until someone took notice. Unfortunately, in Britain we don't stand together.
I suggest that records are kept every time a truck enters and leaves the UK. Hauliers could then be billed every three months, like VAT, for the time spent in Britain. Another solution would be to give concessions to those who prove they are international operators.
I want to run efficiently and costeffectively without being penalised all the time. I have made my protest by refusing to pay vehicle excise duty to get someone to listen; I am now reluctantly taxing my vehicles.
It might not have been the correct way to go about it as I have no disrespect for the law. I am not the sort of person who is constantly rocking the boat, but when I believe in something I have got to stand up for it.
HARMONY
We need more harmony between the European countries, not just over vehicle taxation, but also in regard to weight limits and so on. Everyone appears to be allowed to come into Britain and do whatever they like. When the floodgates open in 1993 no doubt foreign hauliers will find it easier to operate in the UK than we will abroad. I hope that someone does something soon. y