...as committee of MPs
Page 5
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
reject fuel duty claims
by Clan O'Brien
The haulage industry's claim that high fuel and vehicle duty is making it uncompetitive has been rejected by MPs on the Gammons Transport Select Committee.
This devastating conclusion has raised a question mark over the effectiveness of the industry's lobbying efforts.
The committee, chaired by Gwyneth Dunwoody, assessed two months of written evi dence and one month of verbal evidence before concluding
that high taxation has helped push up freight rates so that the full cost of KV road use can be met.
But the Freight Transport Association believes the MPs finding is wrong. Deputy director general Richard Turner says: "The committee has completely failed to understand that excessive vehicle and fuel tax is crippling UK companies and exposing them to unfair competition from foreign hauliers. It doesn't understand that having high tax will not push the rates up—it merely gives low taxed foreign based hauliers an even
better competitive advantage, currently at 10%."
The ETA and the Road
Haulage Association both deny that the committee's findings are an indictment of their lobbying methods. An ETA spokesman says: "There will be no change in our approach. If we thought blockades would make any difference we might, but we don't think they will." However, the RHA is considering different forms of action (see panel below).
There was some good news for hauliers in the report. Recommendations included: • The introduction of a UK vignette system:
The impounding of illegally operated vehicles;
A re-examination of the night-time working element of the Working lime Directive;
Incentives to encourage hauliers—particularly ownerdrivers and small firms—to buy new vehicles.