RHA wants European Forum to push for higher fuel tax
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• by Charles Young The Road Haulage Association will push for higher fuel duty on the Continent in the latest twist to its complicated campaign.
RHA chief executive Roger King (pictured) wants UK ministers to adopt this policy at the new European Transport Forum which is due to be established. King also hopes that the RHA will be represented at the forum. "We have to be them or there will not be a lot of benefit in it. I see it ulti mately as the solution to the problem," he says.
King wants minimum duty rates to be intro duced as well as maxi mum rates lower than those in the UK. This is in line with EC proposals (see page 5).
A spokesman for the DOT says the forum will be established but a date has not been set and the UK's policy has net been discussed. The strategy was mentioned at the RHA's annual conference, held in Marbella, Spain this week.
The RHA is also faxing its members to ask them to gather signatures for a petition it wants to deliver to Downing Street in time for the Autumn Budget statement—it is aiming for one million signatures. However, it has distanced itself from the 60-day deadline for government action which was set by the fuel protesters, saying it is now committed to dialogue.
The association insists that it is still demanding an essential user rebate for hauliers alongside an across-the-board reduction in fuel duty—and it rebuts criticisms of this position (see panel).
RHA national chairman John Bridge said: "The Fuel Forum was set up democratically and they chose me to act as the spokesman. These [the Fuel Forum's and the RHA's stances] are not contradictory but complementary positions." Despite his earlier resignation Bridge will be joining the eighth meeting of the Transport Forum on 18 October because he believes ministers could show a change of attitude. "However, if that is not going to be meaningful I will refuse to continue to be a par d it.he warns.
• The RNA has cancelled Its 2001 conference because of hauliers' continuing struggle against costs. Only 280 of Its 10,000 members went to Marbella.