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Vignette or toll roads, not both
Page 28
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AS AN INDUSTRY we should consider ourselves truly blessed that we have aTransport Minister in the form of Dr Stephen Ladyman who, through an admission that he reads Commercial Motor, indicates that he has the ability to read!
I hope the minister casts his eyes over my small contribution and takes the opportunity to reply through the pages of CM clarifying for all of us the game his government is playing.Two issues cause me concern: a proposed tariff to use our road network and the introduction of what would seem to be a piece of electronic junk in the form of a digital tachograph which is not recording a true record of drivers' activities The EU permits the imposition of a tariff on the use of roads by commercial vehicles.'This is known as a vignette,set at a reasonable €8 (5) per day,substantially cheaper than Ken's London congestion charge.This charge is imposed by Belgium, I lolland. Luxembourg and-until it chooses to go down a different route by imposing a toll system of its ownGermany [which has the Maut road charging system on its motorways].
France, Spain and Italy are not permitted to impose the vignette charge because they already have toll roads The EU gives countries a choice to impose a tariff on commercial vehicles using road networks in the form of either a vignette or toll roads, but not both. However.the UK, with its usual greed and incompetence, has managed, it would seem. to illegally impose both.
We are a country with a substantial number of toll roads: the M4, M25,A90 and A15, and I'm sure readers will be aware of many other roads that require a toll to travel upon. I haven't even mentioned that waste of space, the M6 Toll.Then we have the London charge, which is a rather expensive vignette.
My questions for Dr Stephen Ladyman: • How has the UK ended up, it would seem illegally with both tariffs and tolls?
• How does the minister plan to reimburse my industry for either the cost of tolls or Ken's London Congestion Charge?
• The analogue tachograph has always been an accurate means of recording drivers' working hours. How has our industry been lumbered with what would seem to be an inaccurate piece of digital junk? What game are our enforcement agencies planning to play, or is the desire for points and prizes likely to override good common sense?
Peter F Orr, Plymouth by e-mail • See pages 31-2 for an investigation into the inaccuracies built into dig itachs