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Angela Eagle, exchequer secretary to the Treasury, took the unusual step of visiting South Wales haulage firm Owens Road Services last week to find out first-hand how fuel tax rises affect the industry. Eagle's visit on 27 March was organised by Owens, the FTA and local MPs Nia Griffith and Dr Hywel Francis. The Llanelli haulage firm presented figures to Eagle which show the postponed fuel duty rise - originally planned to take place this week - would have cost Owens an additional £250,000  per year.

In fact, the 300-truck operator had threatened large-scale redundancies if the duty rise went ahead (MT 21 February), although the firm emphasises this threat has now receded. The figures also show that, in the period 2001-07, the company paid a total of nearly £25m in fuel duty - an average of £3.5m per year.

Ian Jarman, environmental and legislation manager at Owens, says the visit was a great opportunity to educate the government about the state of the industry, adding: "We welcomed the opportunity to show the minister how difficult it is running a haulage company in today's climate. She listened, but clearly wasn't going to change policy or make any untoward comments [on the basis of the visit].

"She [now] understands the plight we are facing. It was a lobbying opportunity for us, and a chance for her to gain first-hand experience of what we face. It was very positive and we are very pleased she actually took the time to listen to an independent haulier."  Ian Gallagher, policy manager for Wales at the FTA, thinks the meeting was valuable.

"The minister was confronted with [an FTA] member face-to-face, rather than through an association," he says. "And she realised, I hope, that the pressure we are putting on the Treasury is not the concern only of a lobbying group, but has some very real foundations. Owens was able to reiterate the concerns from a grass-roots level."

Gallagher hopes to bring a number of operators to face-to-face meetings with senior MPs, including the secretary of state for Wales, Paul Murphy, or senior civil servants, as the FTA begins its fight against the proposed 2p/litre fuel duty rise scheduled for October. No-one from the Treasury was available to comment as MT went to press.