News

The government should stop using fuel duty rises as its main policy lever to reduce carbon emissions from the logistics sector, the Freight Transport Association (FTA) annual carbon reduction conference was told on Tuesday (24 June).

Instead, it should leave "the cash in the businesses" to invest in carbon emission reduction measures, said James Hookham, the FTA's policy director.

"With fuel prices up 40% in 12 months, our members have switched to survival mode," he said. "Cash flow is more difficult and money isn't available to invest in sustainability, especially for small to medium-sized firms. Rising fuel prices are robbing smaller firms of the money to invest in carbon savings. A 2p/lit increase in fuel duty equals £1,500 a year extra cost to run an HGV - what could we do with that to improve efficiency?"

The conference discussed a range of measures to reduce carbon emissions, including switching to renewable fuel, improving vehicle design and operation, and giving drivers better training.

The government's decision not to go ahead with trials of longer, heavier vehicles (LHVs), which can reduce carbon emissions by 30% per tonne-kilometre  compared with current HGVs, attracted sharp criticism.

"This decision was a failure of policy-making and imagination," said Hookham. "The offer the FTA made to the Department for Transport was to take an evidence-based approach but we weren't given that opportunity. The report from TRL and Heriot-Watt identified the barriers - my frustration is that we were never given a chance to address them."

For more on the FTA carbon reduction conference, see Commercial Motor next week.