New beginnings
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This week marks a new beginning for CM: we’ve launched Commercialmotor.com. It’s taken a lot of hard work from all of the team, but we’ve designed the site to do exactly what we do here in the magazine – and that is to be an essential tool to the busy road transport operator.
On the site you’ll find our brand-new Used Trucks platform where you can buy and sell used wagons, rigids,
trailers or whatever takes your fancy. Of course, you’ll be able to stay up to date with all the latest news and legal guidance, and our business resources pages will be an invaluable tool for the most complex issues in the industry. CM will always be here, on the news-stand or delivered through your door, but we hope you find the new website complements what we do in these pages.
Speaking of new beginnings, Chancellor George Osborne unveiled his autumn statement this week, including a welcome ray of light: the 3ppl rise in fuel duty was delayed until August. Credit goes to FairFuelUK for making the cost of fuel a high priority for the Treasury. But pushing back duty does little to create long term confidence in the industry.
Hauliers need a stable platform in 2012. Something tangible to build business for customers on. Earlier this week, the Treasury announced a 5ppl discount for rural users of fuel: welcome for our readers in the Hebrides, I’m sure. It wouldn’t take much creative thinking to apply a similar principle to the movement of goods on the road in the rest of the UK. Have our politicians, or our lobbyists, got the guts to go for it? Christopher Walton