The government has been urged to go back to the drawing board on road pricing and consider reviving the idea of a Lorry Road User Charge (LRUC). In the Department for Transport (DfT) annual report for 2007/8, the House of Commons Transport Committee says that because the government has failed to introduce a national road pricing scheme it should go back to look at the issue again.
The report states: "In the absence of a national road pricing scheme for the foreseeable future, UK hauliers continue to pay towards the cost of maintaining the infrastructure while their foreign competitors generally make no such contribution. "This situation is highly unsatisfactory and has been going on for far too long."
It goes on to say that the DfT must act to level the playing field. "Since a national road pricing scheme remains a distant prospect, we recommend that the department revives plans to set up a lorry road user charging 
scheme as soon as possible." Geoff Dossetter, director of external affairs at theFreight Transport Association (FTA), says the key thing about the LRUC was the uncoupling of fuel duty for hauliers from that of duty for the general public. "While we support [the uncoupling], we still have concerns about how such a complicated distance-based tax would work."
Instead he says the FTA's idea of a distance-based rebate based on tachograph data is more feasible. The Road Haulage Association's director of policy, Jack Semple, adds that while in principle the RHA supports an LRUC, he does have concerns about the practicalities. "It was the practicalities that meant it didn't happen last time and I can't see how anything has changed." The DfT says a recent study shows that an LRUC would offer limited safety, congestion and environmental benefits and so this idea will not be progressed at this time.