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Boffin blasts truck charging

25th March 2004, Page 10
25th March 2004
Page 10
Page 10, 25th March 2004 — Boffin blasts truck charging
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LRUC is too complicated and too costly to run, says researcher. By Andy Salter.

LEADING TRANSPORT and logistics academic Professor Alan McKinnon has launched a blistering attack on the government's proposed Lorry Road User Charge (LRUC), just days after chancellor Gordon Brown announced the scheme's introduction would be delayed until 2008.

McKinnon claims the system is over-complicated, would be more costly for truck operators in the long-term and is unlikely to reduce traffic congestion.

-We really are taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut," McKinnon said, explaining that the original motive for the charge — to tax foreign trucks entering the UK—could be achieved in a much more simplistic manner. "As the system stands today we'll need five times the revenue we'll actually get from foreign trucks just to run the system."

McKinnon. head of the logistics research centre at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. admitted he had originally been an enthusiastic supporter of distance-based charging for vehicles, but had reconsidered his position as details of the government's plans had emerged. His critique, sponsored by Daf Trucks, was presented to the transport press on the eve of the CV Show in Birmingham and is intended as a "contribution loan important debate within the road transport industry," he said.

While heavy on criticism of the government's plans. McKinnon's address was short of alternatives and the FTA moved quickly to support the LRUC, claiming it is better to participate in the dialogue with government than have the system forced upon the industry, • Richard Turner, FTA chief executive, has written to the transport minister requesting that the proposed fuel tax rebate system, which will compensate operators and thereby ensure tax neutrality, be up and running by 2006. This should allow it to bed in before the charge is introduced in 2008.


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