BUDOET BLUES
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In a few weeks' time them will be another Budget and I dread to think what new measures will be dreamed up to cane the transport industry this year. My husband is a sole trader haulage contractor—one of the thousands of owner-drivers who keep this country supplied with every commodity it requires; yet year on year successive administrations continue to tax them off the road.
It is a long established rule that fuel costs should not exceed one-third of gross earnings for the commercial viability of road haulage, yet for the past 12 months our diesel bill has taken more than half of the monthly pay cheque. Our protests after the last Budget's hike on fuel duty and road fund licences were met with promises to look into the matter, but after nearly a year nothing has been done and we are still paying these extortionate taxes.
Farmers complained when there was no economic market for their sheep, and they dumped them on the RSPCA and in phone boxes.
Within a couple of weeks there was a multi-million-pound rescue package to bail out the poor farmers ( have you ever met a poor farmer?).
Why can't we have a fuel tax rebate similar to that which used to apply to stage-carriage operators in the PSV industry? After all, there is no rescue society for bankrupt truckers' families. No one wants to see French-style blockades or 1950s' strikes, because our grievances are with the government and not the public, who I believe are generally in agreement with us.
Perhaps the answer would be for us all to use farmers' taxfree diesel, as that would only affect the one we want it to, the taxman. After all, they could not lock up every owner-driver and they certainly haven't got the room to impound all the trucks. Elizabeth Jones,
Crewe, Cheshire.