Spreading the word to
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• by Charles Young
The Road Haulage Association says it received a more sympathetic hearing from a cross-party group of MPs last week than it has done from the last five Industry Forum meetings.
But it accepts that any progress it has made in persuading the Government to reduce the tax burden on hauliers will have come too late for this month's Budget. The committee expects to put a report in front of the Commons within a couple of months: the next meeting of the Forum is scheduled for 17 April.
Incoming RHA chief executive Roger King says: "If nothing else, the report that comes out of this meeting should embarrass the Government. If you keep making your point eventually things can happen."
King had previously addressed the Transport Select Committee's subcommittee on road haulage, chaired by Gwyneth Dunwoody, MP for Crewe. He told it: The current high costs are affecting our ability to trade on a level playing field with our partners in Europe. It's a dangerous situation the industry finds itself in."
Dunwoody asked King if he had any evidence of hauliers flagging out. King replied there was strong evidence of operators in Northern Ireland crossing the border to the Republic to benefit from cheaper taxes.
RHA national chairman John Bridge added that 3.500 hauliers had moved there in recent months. ''The Government is trying to stop this by dealing with the effect, not the cause,' he explained. But we don't want to flag out—we want to register in the UK and run as UK companies. But when we see the difference in costs and the unfair competition we are left with no alternative."