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Road hauliers pay more than their fair share to cover the cost of the infrastructural and environmental damage they cause. According to a report by Heriot-Watt University, the taxes paid by operators in the UK meet these 'external' costs with some cash left over to line the Treasury's pockets. Alan McKinnon, logistics professor at Heriot-Watt and the author of the report, says: "This is the first time that research  has shown that hauliers pay their way for infrastructural and environmental costs. A large part of this is down to improving Euro standards, better fuel efficiency and better noise standards."

As a result, he says, the environmental footprint of the road transport sector is smaller than it used to be. This, combined with a high tax rate in the UK, means that the costs are more than covered. Heriot-Watt estimates that the external costs of LGVs in the UK are £7.1bn a year. This does not include 'internal' costs such as fuel, VED and vehicle maintenance.

Of the overall external costs attributed to LGVs, 40% come from congestion, 23% from infrastructure, 19% from accidents, 15% from air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and 2% from noise. The report found that the duties and taxes paid by transport operators cover an average of 67% of the total external costs created by British-registered LGVs.

However McKinnon says that if congestion is taken out of the equation,  the taxes currently paid by UK road haulage operators exceed the value of all the external costs for all LGVs apart from artics over 33t - which cover 99% of their costs. In 2006 the average truck in the UK paid 12% more in duties and taxes than its allocated infrastructural and environmental costs (excluding congestion costs).

However McKinnon warns that one result of UK operators paying over the odds is that the market is opened up to foreign operators that cover fewer of their external costs. The report adds that even though duties and taxes in the UK are very high, they would need to be 50% higher again to fully cover all the external costs of the road freight sector, such as congestion and accidents.

If the government were to provide additional road space and/or use traffic-management measures to relieve congestion, costs would be reduced and the degree of internalisation increased, the report concludes. McKinnon adds: "Given the importance of road freight transport to the national economy, this would probably prove a more effective transport strategy than taxing LGVs more heavily. And the more operators are taxed, the less likely they are to be able to afford to upgrade their trucks to more efficient and environmentally friendly versions."