Chancellor Gordon Brown’s pre-Budget statement was extremely disappointing for the haulage and distribution industry. It was disappointing both for what it did say and what it did not.
The increase in fuel price will hit many hauliers, but was to be expected. While we would have preferred him not to increase them, the Chancellor probably felt if he did not do it now, with oil prices falling, he ever would. So he increased the duty levels.
Worryingly he said that fuel duty should rise “at least” as much as inflation and the implication is that it could rise to raise revenue for the Government. Raising fuel duty by inflation is bad enough, but to raise it more than inflation in future would sound like a return to the fuel escalator.
More surprising was that he did not reduce duty on bio-diesel. The current level only brings it to around the same price as diesel; he will have to do much more if he wants it to be widely used.
He also said nothing about rebates to encourage the most environmentally friendly vehicles. This is perhaps not surprising given the problems of ensuring that AdBlue is actually used in SCR vehicles. But we now have a strange position where older vehicles do qualify for incentives while new, cleaner vehicles do not.
But the biggest blow was the refusal of the Government to accept many of the arguments to reduce the industry’s problems. The final report of the Task Group of the Road Haulage forum was rather devastating.
Yet, as Motor Transport revealed a couple of weeks ago, the Government is seriously looking at introducing a Vignette, or daily charge, on overseas vehicles in the UK. Motor Transport has long advocated such a “Brit Disc”. It is a pity that we were seduced by the ultimately impractical Lorry Road User Charge.
But if the Government decides that it is not practical to introduce a Brit Disc, where does that leave us? The answer is with tougher enforcement and that is about it.
As I said, it was a disappointing day.
See earlier entries on:
What the Chancellor said
The report of the task group of the Road Haulage Forum
Industry comments