The Government has rejected many of the arguments made by the industry in the Road Haulage task force, set up after the Burns Enquiry. A summary of evidence of the Haulage Industry Task Group was published with the pre-Budget statement and sharply refuted many of the key point of complaint by the industry.

It says:
• Cabotage is relatively low at around 1% of the total domestic road freight movements and is in line with the Western European average, and in the areas most affected it is only 4.2%
• The current margins in the industry “do not stand out as being particularly weak” says the report. The average profit margin in the road haulage sector is 2.2%, while construction is 2.4% and 2.1% in the courier market.
• While two our of three surveys on driver shortages showed that 50% of hauliers had trouble filling vacancies, the figures are in line with evidence from the wider economy. “…we might expect if there was a shortage of drivers, wages being bid up to attract entrants but wage increases in the profession have been consistently in line with the rest of the economy.” Anecdotal evidence suggests that the problem may be more local than national.

See main Roadtransport.com pre-budget statement coverage