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The FTA believes now is the best chance the industry has had in eight years to get the government to introduce a fuel duty rebate, but urges operators to be patient. Having sent a report prep-ared by Pricewaterhouse-Coopers (PwC) on fuel duty differentiation to the Chan-cellor, the FTA is confident of a positive response.

The study suggests three ways for the government to lower the duty rate on trucks, with the FTA now backing the mileage-based rebate, as it is the most economical and  would create the least red tape. PwC's analysis shows this solution can be achieved for £400m, as opposed to the original £1bn cited in the Burns Report, largely due to a second-tier of tangible benefits.

"The analysis recognises that were a rebate to be offered, then the additional cash would either be retained as profit, invested in the business, or passed on to customers. "In each of these scenarios, tax would be raised on these transactions, as corporation tax, VAT, or income tax, offsetting the cost of the rebate," says James Hookham, FTA director of policy.

"We now need to work up our preferred option and satisfy ourselves that we have a system that won't dump a lot of unnecessary admin on the industry."  The FTA hopes to be able to flesh out the proposal with Treasury officials over the summer, ready for the Chancellor to see in the autumn after Parliament's recess.

"The PwC report for the first time makes it easier for the Treasury to see the costs involved  with decoupling truck and car fuel taxes. However, the government won't adopt this overnight, it is going to take time, which is why we must all keep up the pressure on the government over the summer," says Hookham.

The FTA is about to launch a series of posters which highlight the unfair advantage foreign hauliers have over their UK counterparts and is also continuing to put pressure on the government to abandon its 2p/litre fuel duty rise planned for October.