...TILL THE PIPS SQUEAK • Ever get the feeling you're
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talking to a brick wall? Last November Commercial Motor revealed that the DOT was considering raising 0-licence fees by £100 Hauliers were not impressed: "In difficult times any increase must be deplored," said the RHA. Undeterred, the DOT put the scheme out to consultation.
According to CM'S dictionary, "consult" means to "seek information or advice; to take into consideration (feelings,interest)". So when the RHA and the FTA have both condemned the move—"insensitive to the economic situation faced by the industry" (FTA); and "a swingeing increase" (RHA), you'd think that the DOT would take their feelings and interests into consideration, right? Wrong.
There's worst to come. In two weeks' time Chancellor Norman Lamont will stand up in Parliament and deliver a tough, revenue-generating budget which is likely to hit hauliers hard.
Why? Because he can. He, like the Treasury and the DOT, knows that road transport is an industry that can be squeezed until it bleeds the required amount of pounds and pence, and there's nothing the industry can do about it. You want to operate a truck? Then pay whatever he demands for VED, fuel tax, 0licence fees, test fees, VAT, TAO administration costs, corporation tax, death duties, capital gains tax, business rates, poll tax—you name it, they'll tax it.
With only 25,000 operators in any kind of trade association, who's going to listen to anything hauliers have to say? Judging by the DOT's attitude to 0-licence fees the answer is, nobody.