So forget all about charging overseas hauliers to use our roads. Forget Brit Discs and forget level playing fields for UK hauliers. Overseas hauliers using cheap fuel will continue to be able to come here and not pay a penny towards using our roads (unless they are foolish enough to buy our fuel.

That is the clear message from the Freight Data Feasibility Study: Progress Report, published today at the same time as the budget. What on earth is that, you may well ask?

Well is clear that the aim of the Government was never to charge overseas trucks using our roads. No, it was in reality just a way to getting a database of overseas vehicles, so they knew where to send the fine if they left the country without paying a fine or penalty.
Unfortunately it reckons that charging overseas hauliers is not a good way to do that.
The report says:”Of all the options considered, a vignette scheme would have the potential to generate a database with the highest percentage of relevant vehicles recorded. But the project team observe that financial revenue to Government would be relatively limited, due to the restrictions imposed by the Eurovignette Directive.
“They estimate that (because of the need to adjust maximum levels to sit alongside UK VED rates) the average cost of a daily UK vignette would be £7.45 and the average cost of an annual UK vignette would be £671.48, with the exact charge varying depending on the type and size of vehicle.
“The average charge per vehicle per day will be considerably lower than the estimated £7.45 average for a daily vignette (because some hauliers will opt to purchase monthly or annual permits).”
What is bizarre is that the rate of this vignette is set by Brussels, and set very low. It ends up with us having to pay the highest fuel duty in Europe set by the UK and re then forced by the EU to only charge a pitiful amount for overseas vehicles to use our roads.
Surely we must have the power in the UK to set not a vignette but an environmental tax on overseas vehicles.

Theo de Pencier, chief executive of the FTA commented "Mr de Pencier also referred to lorry operating costs. ‘Following last weeks 2p increase in fuel duty, which put UK lorries at an even worse competitive situation against foreign visitors, it seems increasingly clear that the vignette option will make no real impact on levelling the competitive playing field which has been so distorted by the increasing operation of foreign vehicles in the UK working on cheap continental fuel together with other cost savings. This conclusion makes the increase in fuel duty even more exasperating for the domestic transport market and once again points to the need for a fundamental change in the way goods vehicles are taxed."