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Following the latest round of fuel protests organised by Transaction 2007, the Road Haulage Association (RHA) is organising further action for the beginning of July. As fishermen, farmers and hauliers organise protests and blockades across Europe, and British hauliers consider blockading fuel depots, RHA chief executive Roger King says the final details of the rally have yet to be decided,  but the idea is to lobby parliament.

"Hauliers do not want to bring trucks into London, because they cannot afford to." Instead, the RHA is calling for drivers to come in person to the rally. King hopes the rally will coincide with the SNP amendment to the current Finance Bill, which is seeking the introduction of a fuel duty regulator to stabilise fuel prices.

"You've got to have a purpose to these things, and we've done the handing in of petitions and letters to Number 10 and it's not got us very far. We need to tackle the problem in the political world." The RHA is calling on the government to introduce an essential user rebate of 24p/lit before the cabotage restrictions are removed.

However, the Freight Transport Association believes research carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers will get the message across to the government. "Obviously, we support the SNP amendment  to the Finance Bill, but we do not think it's the answer," says Geoff Dossetter, FTA's external affairs director. "We really need a longer-term solution in terms of decoupling fuel duty for essential users and general motorists."