As simple as that!
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Abe Lincoln was right: "You can fool all the hauliers some of the time, and some hauliers all of the time—but you can't fool all the hauliers all of the time."
OK, so he said people instead of hauliers. But in every other respect he was right. And, judging by Commercial Motor's snap-shot survey of the industry, the majority of truck operators aren't fooled at all. They know what's coming at the next Budget: higher fuel duty. The Chancellor can only prove us wrong. But common sense says that next March he's probably going to be looking to raise some money—and he's unlikely to be too worried about the anguished cries of protest from the UK's 52,600 truck operators.
More encouraging is the high proportion of operators who, according to our not particularly scientific survey, plan to pass any fuel duty rise on to their customers. We hope they can, and do. Peter Little's comment that: "If customers don't pay reasonable rates we won't do the job—it's as simple as that!" should be cast in bronze and presented as a paperweight to every haulier in the country.