FOREIGN HGVS
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‘Put pressure on politicians’
PETER CAROLL, OWNER of Kent haulier Seymour Transport and member of campaign group Trans Action, has given his backing to the Transport Select Committee’s efforts to crack down on un safe foreign HGVs, believing it would create a level playing field for hauliers in the UK and Europe.
“It is hugely important to us, particularly down in Kent. Everything we do is to get a level playing field
with the Continental competition. They have to come here and be as safe as we are. And there needs to be an equalisation of fuel duty across the Continent,” Carroll tells CM.
He also believes that greater pressure on politicians to improve road safety compliance among foreign HGVs would lead to a better understanding of the burden of fuel duty increases. He argues: “We have to compete with haulage throughout Europe; and I do not accept that our hands have to be tied behind our back. I am frustrated to hear [about] the level of understanding in our politicians and the lack of understanding that they have is killing us off. We’re the goose that lays the golden egg when it comes to the fuel duty and road tax they get from us, but they’re allowing unfair competition to come and wear out our roads and pollute our air.
“We have got to get the politicians to face reality.”