Road haulage charging scheme proposed

The minister said: "We want to ensure that UK hauliers get a fairer deal and help maintain the competitiveness of our logistics industry. Each year there are around 1.5 million trips to the UK by foreign registered lorries – but none of them pays to use our roads, leaving UK businesses and taxpayers to foot the bill. "The proposals I have set out today will ensure that all hauliers who use our roads are contributing to their cost, regardless of where they are from." The consultation includes plans for a time-based charge of around £10 a day for HGVs of 12 tonnes or over using any road in the UK. The precise charges will depend on exchange rate and inflation at the time of implementation – likely to be 2015. By law, the scheme cannot discriminate between UK-registered vehicles and vehicles from elsewhere in the EU, so this charge will apply to all. However, this will not result in a cost for most UK hauliers, because the government plans to compensate them – probably by reducing vehicle excise duty for UK-registered vehicles. Most EU states charge lorries for using their roads – a vehicle doing a two-day return trip from the UK to Belgium, Luxembourg or the Netherlands, for example, would pay €16 in user charges. The government says its scheme would be cost-neutral for 94% of UK-registered HGVs of more than 12 tonnes – 4% would pay up to £50 a year more, and 2% could pay up to the maximum of £79 extra. The increases could be avoided, says the government, if vehicles were re-plated to carry a slightly reduced weight. UK operators would pay an annual (or six-month) charge for each HGV when they pay the vehicle excise duty. Foreign hauliers could pay daily, weekly, monthly or annual charges. The consultation is open until 18 April 2012: click on the link below.