UK planning road user charge for Lorries

Heavy duties imposed by the government mean that the UK has the highest-priced petrol in the world and in the light of this the road haulage lobby argues that it faces unfair competition from foreign hauliers who can fill up with cheaper diesel in their country of origin. In 2000 protests over this issue came to a head when the UK descended into chaos with anti-fuel tax protests by road haulage companies blocking oil refineries. This, coupled with the sympathetic support of many oil tanker drivers, effectively brought the country to a standstill. Within three days, more than 90% of all petrol stations were dry, with the result that British businesses lost an estimated £1bn.

The government’s response to this was to promise to start working on a road user charge for lorries. The charge is intended to be applied to all lorries over 3.5 tonnes using UK roads and will be offset by reductions in existing taxes.

 

Initially the charge was meant to be introduced in 2006 but this has now been put back to 2008 to buy more time for trying out the relevant systems.

 

Under the plans lorry drivers will need to register and have a unit fitted in each lorry to measure the distance travelled. This will allow them to take advantage of a reduced rate of fuel duty via a rebate system. The charge will be calculated by taking into account several different factors such as the lorry’s emissions, weight, number of axles and presence of a trailer.

 

Also being discussed are proposals for levying different charges according to the type of road used and the time of day at which it is used. This would be useful in addressing congestion, but is considered to be unfair by many haulage companies who believe they should not be penalised for using certain roads at particular times when such penalties are not applied to other traffic using those roads.

 

Plans currently centre around diesel-fuelled vehicles, with the government considering the exemption of petrol-fuelled vehicles from the scheme because of the complexities that including them would cause. However, given the danger that exempting them might prompt a universal switch from diesel to petrol, they might end up being included after all.