Hauliers go blue in Cif/election survey
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With just one week to go before polling day, Chiset out to I get some idea of how hauliers plan to cast their votes. We talked to a small sample of operators from across the UK in three categories: fewer then five truck; 6-25 trucks; and more than 25 trucks. Our snapshot may hearten Mr Hague...
• The Labour government's handling of fuel taxation, roads and congestion has certainly not been forgotten: nearly 70% of the hauliers surveyed by Commercial Motor plan to vote Conservative at the general election. Just 10% support Labour—even the Liberal Democrats did better than the government with a 14% share of hauliers' pledged votes. Other parties notched up just 5% between them.
These figures stand in stark contrast to national election polls, which put Labour in a clear lead with national support ranging between 48-55%.
However, unlike the rest of the nation, 74% of hauliers say they will be voting for policies which affect their businesses rather than on family issues such as health and education.
Asked to define the most important election promises on transport, it came as no surprise that 88% would opt for a cut in fuel duty. Other areas identified as key issues were improvements to the infrastructure, a levy on foreign trucks operating in the UK and effective measures to curb congestion.
As one angry haulier put it: "Everything else in your business is controllable apart from fuel, which the Government controls." But while the Conservatives might think they have won hauliers over with their pledge of a 6p/lit cut in diesel, some respondents remain sceptical. "It's all very well but the oil companies will put the price back up again two weeks later," said one Tory voter.
One Labour voter pointed out that Labour was the only party he knew of to have brought fuel prices down in a Budget, although another operator said that another Labour term would be damaging for haulage.
There were several complaints about the state of British roads, which one haulier claimed were in the worst condition for 25 years.