MPs' committee invite!
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hauliers' view on fuel la
• by Guy Sheppard MPs will question haulage leaders for the second time this year about the impact of fuel taxes, despite originally concluding that haulage rates are sufficient to cover taxation costs.
The two-day hearing by the House of Commons Trade and Industry Committee begins on 31 October and it has received a cautious welcome by both major trade associations.
John Bridge, national chairman of the Road Haulage Association, says: "What we find very surprising Is that the Department of Trade & Industry is, on the return of parliament, looking at what the Transport Select Committee reported on just before Parliament rose. Perhaps the government feels very uncomfortable about what it said. I have never heard a minister quote any of the conclusions from that report, which they could very well have done."
A spokesman for the Freight Transport Association says select committees have no power at all and tend to be ignored when the government disagrees with what they say. But he adds that the new hearing is a fresh lobbying opportunity, particularly as it could coincide with Chancellor Gordon Brown's pre-Budget statement.
"We have to take every opportunity that comes our way," he adds. "If you get knocked down half a times, you've still got to up again."
Representatives Farmers for Action, the I Farmers' Union, the Tr & General Workers' Jr the Confederation of Industry have also beer to give evidence.
The invitation comes the heels of the fuel pro1 less than two months a Commons Transport Committee rejected that high fuel taxes and duty were making roar port uncompetitive.
The findings of thi inquiry are unlikely to I lished before December