BUDGET FEEDBACK
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II Operators and trade associations contacted by Commercial Motor shortly after the Budget speech were both relieved and incredulous at its content.
"It was an excellent Budget overall," Hempsall Truck Services managing director, and Road Haulage Association executive board member, Barry Hempsall, reports.
"I'm pleased with it," Honey Services Group director lain Mays says, while National Freight Consortium chief executive Jack Mather labels it as "very, very good news."
Director, Barry Courtney, of East Londonbased Byron Cartage — had deliberately avoided listening to the Budget speech but noticeably relaxed as CM detailed the changes. "It's very, very good. It's better than we'd hoped," he says.
The freeze in vehicle excise duty and dery duty surprised the operators most. "I'm absolutely delighted that there is no increase in VED and dery duty," Newark-based Hempsall told CM. RHA pleas to the Chancellor had paid off, he asserts.
The prospect of lower interest rates, allowed through lower Government borrowing, was also enthusiastically received. Hempsall Truck Services, which also incorporates a MAN-VW truck franchise, believes that truck purchasing will receive a boost.
Horley Services Group cites the probable fall in the interest rate to 10%, or even 9.5%, as the most important element of the Budget.
The industry's two trade associations, the Freight Transport Association and the RHA, are less happy about the Budget.
While they both agree the changes do much to help smaller operators, they complain that operators still pay too much in VED and dery duty,