Many of today's news stories are concerned with business costs, from wages to parking prices. One Scunthorpe haulier is giving his 38 drivers an 8% pay rise because it believes the government's inflation figure of 3% is wildly inaccurate; we wonder whether others will follow suit. Less welcome to all concerned is the news that Welcome Break's charges are set to rise.

But when talking about costs there is no escaping the rising price of fuel, and Cotswolds haulier John Hackling is one of many that expect trading to be tough in the next year as a result of the cost of diesel. At least in Hackling's case there has been some good news - a one-off property deal boosting profit more than tenfold.

With all these costs to bear, no operator can afford to fall foul of scams and tricks - today the Commercial Trailer Association (CTA) is warning of one that nearly cost it €987.

And over in the blogs today, BigLorryBlog has all the latest news on the Dutch approach to longer, heavier vehicles (pictured below).