Foreign lorries are to incur charges of £1,000 for accessing roads in the UK as the government attempts to level the playing field for domestic haulers.
The proposed legislation would raise over £20 million per year for the government, though UK-based hauliers would have any costs cancelled out by a reduction vehicle excise duty.
The new rules being set forth by the Department for Transport would attempt to create a fairer system for UK logistics businesses which are forced to pay for travelling on roads in other parts of Europe.
Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: “These proposals will deliver a vital shot in the arm to the UK haulage industry. It is simply not right that foreign lorries do not pay to use our roads, when our trucks invariably have to fork out when travelling to the continent.
“By introducing charges we will create a level playing field, increasing UK competitiveness and boosting growth.”
British hauliers who operate in Europe face a variety of road tolls and charges while continental lorries can use British roads for free.
RHA Chief Executive Geoff Dunning called the announcement “a happy day for road hauliers”, though added that charges could be higher.
“UK hauliers travelling to mainland Europe have to pay road charges but foreign registered vehicles travelling to the UK pay nothing,” he said. “We expect a charge of about £1000 per year. This is not enough to give us a level playing field as regards the rest of Europe. But it is a good start and will help no end in beginning to prepare the ground.”
The plans are unlikely to mean any significant costs will be passed on to distributors working in the channel in the UK, recieving goods from other parts of Europe.
Quocirca analyst Clive Longbottom says that although logistics costs will have to be passed on, the extra costs incurred are unlikely to amount to significant extra costs for UK channel companies.
“If you take a 32 tonne truck with computer equipment or routers or whatever it is on there , that is a hell of a lot of kit,” Longbottom said. “If it is doing that trip once a month, you are looking at it being the best part of 400 tonnes of equipment – a thousand pound separated amongst that lot is virtually nothing. The overall costs are going to minimal.”
In fact, it is likely that haulage companies affected will consider the charges relatively light.
“The government has put it at this level because lots foreign logistics companies will complain and whinge like mad, but secretly they are saying ‘thank god it wasn’t ten thousand’,” he said. “There will be a lot of bluster but at the end of the day they are going ‘we got away with it’, a thousand pounds is nothing.”
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It will fail as it did in Belgium as it is clearly a barrier to the movement of goods within the single market.
About bloody time too., the person who commented about Belgium is way off the mark, British trucks leaving the UK have to purchase4 a `vignette` before they travel into Europe, the driver estimates how long his journey will take, and pays a daily charge for that time.
Travel without displaying a vignette and the fine is huge, and non negotiable, if you run out of time, then you purchase another`top up` in petrol stations or at post offices n the continent, this has been going on for many years, and is on top of the normal motorway tolls in France,Spain and Italy, I have not been for a couple of years now, but British drivers also had to pay `transit` taxes to travel in the former USSR countries, Czech Hungary,Bulgaria,Romania and others, do they pay transit taxes here, no way,FREE FREE FREE
It is not before time we charged these freeloaders for the
use of our roads, it is not a new idea, it has been mooted many times before, but our Useless Politicians of all stripes have ignored this money earner, Just take the vehicles entry and exit times, check their destinations, and reload points, then charge for time and mileage, the same as the customs do abroad.
Before some one says it will flood customs with paperwork, all the information is captured on the various transit documents used by foreign hauliers, be they CMRs or TIR Carnets, so with our marvellous computer systems it will be easy to apply, after all, the former communist countries
used to photocopy our transit documents in the 60s, 70 and 80 periods, that is how and why their state owned `Willi Betz` and the semi state owned `Hungarocamion`can take British traffic, they have all the names, addresses and prices, so they can and do undercut British Hauliers, who takes most of the whisky out of Scotland, not us, who moves all the tabacco to foreign duty free shops, not us, this action should be the first of many to level the International haulage scene and give British hauliers a fair crack of the whip, but thanks to Useless Brain dead
Politicians we work with one hand tied behind our backs, and besides, it would allow HMRC to re employ all the customs officers it laid off when we joined the `FREE MARKET` sorry I did not post sooner, I have only just found this article.
Regards
Bob Grimes