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Transport secretary Douglas Alexander set out his "three Cs" to operators at the FTA dinner in London: Compliance, congestion and climate change. On compliance, he blasted unfair competition from overloaded vehicles, drivers exceeding working hours, and short-cut maintenance. Foreign competition was singled out as Alexander said that roadside cash fines from foreign trucks would be available to VOSA from next summer. Alexander said nothing about the fuel duty difference between the UK  and Europe but noted that he had used his discretionary power to ban cabotage from seven of the ten new accession states until 2008.

Alexander said the DfT's long-promised review of the regulations implementing the EU working time directive for mobile workers would start "very soon". Plans for pilot road pricing in urban areas are moving forward. These will help the government to "learn how it works and make decisions about national road pricing". "We want you to be involved in the planning of the road pricing strategy - because if the system doesn't work for transport operators, then the system doesn't work." Alexander highlighted the use of other freight methods to reduce CO2 emissions -60% more freight is carried on rail today than in 1995, "cleanly and efficiently".

Road pricing is "being taken forward". He noted demand for "more road space", but concluded that "more concrete is not the solution for congestion", pointing to improvements in road network management. The  said the government will introduce a Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation to increase the use of biofuels in 2008. (The RTFO will oblige fuel suppliers to mix a proportion of diesel with bio-fuel. UK-produced biodiesel shows a typical carbon savings of around 55% compared to fossil diesel, based on the fuel cycle of the fuel, although the figure varies according to bio-diesel type, the DfT says. Second-generation biofuels can be "carbon neutral", it says.