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With nearly 100 trucks occupying London's Park Lane, the turnout for Tuesday's Trans-Action fuel price demonstration exceeded the organiser's expectations. Co-organiser of the event and founder of TransAction, Mike Presneill, says: "We want to put the Burns Report back under the Treasury's nose - there are solutions in there to offset rising fuel costs." Convoys from Kent and Lincolnshire converged at Marble Arch to make the case for government assistance in coping with rocketing diesel prices.  

Hauliers from as far away as Cornwall and South Wales took part.A coffin lamenting the bankruptcy of many small hauliers was carried to Westminster on a truck belonging to Joe Cook of Moulton Chapel, Lincolnshire. "We're looking for the government to take the RHA's advice and describe hauliers as essential users and give a tax rebate," says demonstrator Sharon Knight from family business Les Knight Transport.

Referring to fuel price rises of 30% in the past year driver Tim Ingram of Kent-based S&S Distribution adds: "It now costs more to fuel this truck for a day than to pay my wages for a week." Gerry Jones, managing director of Gerry Jones Transport, in Newport, Wales, says: "The price of fuel is killing our industry and we need to bring it to the attention of the government."

A Treasury statement adds: "The government recognises the vital role of freight transport in economic success of the country, and will continue to monitor oil market developments  and take all relevant economic, social and environmental factors into account in future decisions." As MT went to press, the price of bulk diesel had reached 99.85p/litre.