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HGVs will keep their M6 Toll discount but £11 'was fair'
Page 8
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The M6 Toll operator will maintain its discount for trucks. Dominic Perry repo s.
MIDLANDS EXPRESSWAY (MEL), the operator of the M6 Toll road, has defended its initial truck pricing structure after it confirmed that its rates would remain pegged at a lower level "until further notice".
MD Tom Fanning denies that MEL's original rate of £11 for trucks was too high.
He says: "Our pricing initially was correct — the industry was not quite ready for that, but I don't think it was wrong. However, the call from industry was to listen to their views and reduce it so they could trial the road. "Having done that," he adds, "it's gone spectacularly well and operators are sending more and more vehicles down it."
The news of the lower £5.11 toll for HGVs comes on the first anniversary of the road's opening in December last year. Since then more than 16 million vehicles have used the M6 Toll, although MEL still refuses to say precisely how many trucks are among them.
An FTA spokeswoman adds: "We are absolutely delighted by this news. There has been an increased level of traffic using the toll road since the rate for trucks was reduced back in the summer, which is good news for everyone."
Keith Forster, MD of Cheshirebased Boughey Distribution, adds: "I think that at that level we would use it,although to be honest !think our drivers already over-use it slightly. We are trying to get the drivers to be sensible and only use it where there's a material gain."