Heavies to face huge cutbacks
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by Amanda Bradbury and Nick Ryan • Furious heavy hauliers are bracing themselves for tough cuts following a £1,750 vehicle excise duty hike on special types slapped on by the Chancellor Norman Lamont last week. The hike, along with dery price rises, will send unit costs soaring by thousands of pounds.
A 20-vehicle STGO operator, Leicester Heavy Haulage, says the -Budget will add an extra £45,000 to its annual fuel and VED bill. Managing director Brian Rodwell says: "We'll have to review our size—we employ 44 people and run 38 vehiclesthere just isn't the demand to carry slack. The rise is horrendous and unfair."
Heavy haulier JB Rawcliffe will pay an extra £18,000 in VED per year on its 10 STGOs and charges will go up 5%. Director Brian Rawcliffe, also Heavy Transport Association chairman, is furious: "What banana boat does Lamont think we're on?"
The £1,750 VED rise will be introduced in two stages, with the first £1,000 increase effective from Budget day, and the second £750 rise per unit from November's Unified Budget.
These increases bring STGO VED into line with the £5,000 duty on a 35-tonne artic with twoaxle tractor and trailer, says RHA technical manager Bob Stacey: but he says the Government's comparison is unfair: "STGOs have more hydraulic axles than artics which create more road damage, and Special Types do less mileage in a year."