Chancellor Gordon Brown's autumn statement in a few weeks could have big implications for the UK haulage industry as he becomes a Green Chancellor" in the light of the Stern Report on the environment. As diesel prices have fallen, there is a good chance that he will raise fuel duty for the first time since the fuel dispute. This will show that he wants to discourage making unnecessary journeys. He may well put a positive spin on this by introducing enviromental measures. In fact he needs to do this as a Euro 3 vehicle qualifies for a low emission certificate while a Euro 5 vehicle does not. If the Chancellor gives incentives for buying Euro 3 engines, this could hit the EGR camp that does not yet have any Euro 5 engines for sale. MAN therefore is pressing the Chancellor to give an incentive to take very old vehicles off the road. It rightly argues that doing this will make a bigger and quicker impact on pollution.
Yet there is also a problem with the SCR vehicles. They are ready with Euro 5 vehicles, which requires drivers to fill up with Ad Blue. But truck drivers could just leave the Ad Blu tank empty or fill it with water as there is no automatic way to check that AD Blue is being used. If Ad Blue is not used, the vehicle reduces to Euro 0 standards, which is awful. The Chancellor may be recuctant to give an incentive when enforcement is very difficult and the vehicle could be pumping out emissions at levels produced by very old vehicles.
Also likely is that the Chancellor will reduce the tax on bio diesel. The Government likes this as it is said to be cleaner and sustainable but with the current level of subsidy it is hardly worth using. Gordon almost certainly wants to be seen as being green; encouraging biodiesel is one way to do it.
The other measure that is possible is a mention of a Brit disc, to charge overseas hauliers for using our roads, although he will call it something else.