AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

Plan to tax users and reform hours

15th October 1983
Page 7
Page 7, 15th October 1983 — Plan to tax users and reform hours
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

EEC DRIVERS' hours are "absurdly complicated" and should be replaced by a simple maximum driving time of between nine and 10 hours a day. This is one of the proposals in a forward-looking study' of transport policy by the Adam Smith Institute of London.

Other proposals are to stop environmental groups, legislation boosting the railways; to remove all fuel tax from road freight vehicles being used on an operator's licence (this should not apply until a proper road-use taxation system suggested in the report is operating); to revise the examination system for the Certificate of Professional Competence to ensure reasonable commercial and technical standards are upheld; and to ensure that road freight transport does not suffer from the "blind prejudice" of some while making sure that operators pay their fare share of the costs they impose on others.

The report states that road freight transport is one of the most highly regulated of all economic activities. "A conservative estimate once showed that if the pages of all the Acts, Orders, Statutory Instruments and Traffic Regulations were laid end to end, they would stretch across the Atlantic." It adds that many believe that this where they should be left.

Competition has been greatly restricted by the overpowering effect of safety legislation, the report says. British Safety Standards on lorries, especially the annual hgv testing, are far stricter than those in most parts of the world, it says.

The enviromental argument has also led to extensive regulation. "While there may be a case for certain basic restrictions, for example on exhausts or where a vehicle may travel, there are many unnecessary controls," the report states.

Moving onto the roads, the report says that an efficient pricing policy is needed to create a link between the costs that a vehicle operator imposes on both the road network and on other driv ers and the amount that he pays towards the financing of that network.

Road use pricing is one suggestion put forward by the report. It would charge the driver of a vehicle various rates depending on which roads are used. This would ration available resources fairly among potential users and provide a system of direct funding for the maintenance and construction of roads.

There would be two main areas of costs — direct costs (road maintenance, fuel and environmental costs) and congestion costs (those imposed on others as a direct result of road use).

The congestion cost will act like a rent for using the road, the more heavily congested the road, the higher the rent. Roads in Greater London would probably be at the top of the price list.

This system would encourage • road users to switch to a more economical form of transport, perhaps bus or rail, or choose an alternative cheaper road.

Systems for calculating the price include off-vehicle meters, in which remote control units would be activated by vehicles passing them, and on-vehicle meters, using devices similar to taxi meters. This type of meter would absorb and count electrical impulses given off by cables laid across the roads.

Off-vehicle meters, having been activated by the vehicle, then pass the information to a central computer where individual records can be kept and bills can be processed. The other system, with the meter housed in the vehicle, would have a "tell-tale" indicator visible from the outside. When the credit cartridge inside the indicator runs down owing to the number of electrical impulses it has picked up, the indicators would show that there is no credit left.

Tags

Locations: London

comments powered by Disqus