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The Road Haulage Association (RHA) has called on the Treasury to decouple fuel duty for hauliers from the tax rises due in October and next April. In a letter to the government this week, the RHA asks for the crippling affect of heavy fuel duty on the haulage industry to be recognised and addressed.

Director of policy Jack Semple says the most pressing issue is for the 2p rise planned for October to be waived for operators.  "The industry is unanimous in its opposition to the increase because [they] think it will damage them directly or impact on customers - particularly when they have European competition."

The RHA letter states that a UK haulier running a 44-tonner pays £13,000-£15,000 a year more in fuel duty than any foreign competitor, and that fuel prices have already risen 6% this year - adding 2% to haulage operating costs. Semple says: "In 2001 the Chancellor accepted the tax level for trucks was too high and tried to address it with the failed Lorry Road User Charge. That did not work, so we really need to decouple haulage from the green tax being placed on cars."

The RHA points out that five EU states - the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain and Italy - offer hauliers a fuel duty rebate and calls on the government to set up something similar in the UK. "This is one of the measures available to the government and it must recognise that something has to be done to keep UK hauliers  competitive." Transaction, the action group responsible for the fuel blockades in 2000, is believed to have reformed as Transaction 2007, according to Semple, and this shows the strength of feeling in the industry.

A Treasury spokesman says: "We have not yet received a letter from the RHA. The government continues to engage with the industry, and the Freight Data Feasibility Study is expected to report back in time for the Pre-Budget Report. In the Budget, the then Chancellor set out the government's policy on fuel duty, and this remains unchanged."