Use a carrot
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• Regarding the article in Commercial Motor (9-15 May) about speed limiters: I personally have no objections whatsoever to them being fitted to all HGVs. I agree with those who tell us that the savings in fuel will most certainly help the environment. However, are we about to see the same chain of events that happened with the electricity and gas industries, whereby "switching off" and turning down the heating a couple of degrees helped save the environment, only to cause a cost-per-unit rise in order to maintain profits?
If so, has it been made clear to the public that increases in cost will almost certainly be passed on to them in the form of higher retail prices, as happened in the above case?
Will the Government then dodge the responsibility for the new wave of wage increase demands which the higher cost of living will provoke?
The same applies to the increase in vehicle excise duty, as suggested by researchers at Leeds University and Transport 2000. It's all very well making the people responsible for the pollution pay for the damage. But while the companies are profit-based, they are going to pass on those losses to the people who are not responsible for that pollution — the consumers. Higher prices again, and (whoopee!) off we go on the inflation merry-go-round.
It's time that such planners and pressure groups realised that punishing the industry for doing its job is not the answer. Surely, it's far better to devise some sort of reward for doing it in a more environmentally friendly way.
Use a carrot, not a stick. After all, unleaded petrol has been made popular by lowering the price of unleaded fuel, providing an incentive to change, rather than a threat.
Kenneth Webster Barnsley, South Yorks.
• Commercial Motor welcomes readers' letters, which can be phoned in on 081-661 3689 (24-hour service). Letters may be edited for length and do not necessarily represent the views of the editor.