Review set ti raise 0-licence fee
Page 6
Page 7
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
by Nicky Clarke / Haulage costs are expected to soar next year when the 0licence fee rockets by E100 — a hike of over 140%. The increase is the first in a series of moves to change the country's 0-licensing system. The fee structure is likely to be altered and continuous licensing could be introduced.
Proposals to change the 0licensing system were made by former Roads and Traffic Minister Robert Atkins in February 1990.
Next month a Department of Transport working party will start reviewing these plans to see if they are still appropriate. The proposals, which included continuous 0-licensing, needed new legislation for which so far there has been no Parliamentary time.
The Traffic Commissioners are known to have reservations about continuous 0-licensing, favouring a periodic review of data on hauliers in their regions. But the Freight Transport Association supports the idea: "There are a lot of operators with whom things don't change," says John Guttridge, London and South-east regional director.
The DOT went out to consultation with the industry last week on its proposal to increase the 0-licence fee, which will need Parliamentary approval. Unless fiercely opposed by the industry, the increase will come into force in the new year. Vehicle charges of £28 per vehicle will remain unchanged.
The DOT says the rise is necessary because the 1991 increase of £10 did not generate the necessary additional income needed to cover the cost of 0licence enforcement and administration owing to a downturn in demand for Operator Licences over the past two years.
Administration and enforcement of the 0-licensing system has been running at a deficit of about £2m a year for the past five years and has been subsidised by the taxpayer, says the DOT. The annual deficit in 1993/94 is expected to be 4.5m.
Senior Traffic Commissioner, Air Vice-Marshal Ronald Ashford of the Western region, says he has seen a 12% downturn in business over the past year and a greater downturn in the number of vehicles on 0-licences. "Income has suffered because of that," he says.
The present charge of £70 does not even cover the cost of processing an application which is estimated to be in the region of £230.
"The increase will bear extremely heavily on the one, two or three-vehicle operator because they're the ones who are struggling," says Guttridge. "In these difficult times any increase must be deplored," says Tim Inman, director of operations at the Road Haulage Association.
Also to go out to consultation sometime in the new year is a review of the 0-licence fee structure to see "how it could be made fairer", says a letter from the DOT to the industry. The DOT wants to see more flexibility to reflect fluctuations in demand "given that demand for licences responds very rapidly to the state of the economy".