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Despite discussing the industry's concerns with the RHA and FTA, the Chancellor will not make any decisions on scrapping the planned 2p/lit rise in fuel duty ahead of the Budget. Chancellor Alistair Darling is sympathetic to the plight of operators, but the industry will have to wait until the Budget next month to find out whether he will abandon the 2p/lit rise in fuel duty due in April.

The Road Haulage Association (RHA) and the Freight  Transport Association (FTA) met with Darling on Monday, asking him to scrap the increase and create a more level playing field for UK hauliers. RHA chief executive Roger King says: "We were received sympathetically. He understands the predicament the industry is in."

Both the RHA and the FTA pointed out the pressures the industry faces due to unparalleled rises in fuel costs coupled with high rates of fuel duty.

King says: "We identified the issues concerning foreign operators in the country. While the total percentage of cabotage may appear low at 1-2%, we pointed out that there is very little cabotage in milk tankers, live stock and aggregates - and when you take all that out, the competition is quite severe."

He adds that the Chancellor asked whether there was anything else the government could do to help the transport sector and "we touched on areas such as enforcement and the delay to the Graduated Fixed Penalty Scheme.  If he decides not to do anything, it won't be because we haven't put forward our views in a forthright manner," King says.

FTA chief executive Theo de Pencier adds that Darling had clearly done his homework and was sympathetic to the issues faced by operators. "He asked a lot of intelligent questions about the state of the industry and questioned us about the positives and negatives of a vignette. We also asked him to consider delinking the tax on fuel for CVs [from that of tax on fuel for cars]."

The FTA will also report back to the Treasury once it has the results of two pieces of research it is undertaking - one on operator cost comparisons between the UK and the Continent and the other on the practicalities of delinking fuel duty for CVs.