FTA: less carbon should mean less duty

Hauliers that achieve the lowest carbon dioxide emissions should pay less fuel duty, argues the Freight Transport Association (FTA) in its submissions to the government for its pre-Budget report.

Both the FTA and the Road Haulage Association (RHA), which also issued its wishlist for the pre-Budget report in the past few days, stress the importance to the haulage industry of fuel prices being kept as low as possible. Both associations specifically ask the government to abandon plans for the increase in fuel duty, which is planned for April 2010.

In more general terms, both are also highly critical of the government's recent approach to fuel duty, which is higher in the UK than in any other European country.

The RHA says that a typical 44-tonne truck now pays more than £24,000 a year in fuel duty, up £2,500 on a year ago. Duty hikes since November have added £500 to the annual figure, it says.

Both associations also argue that competition from foreign operators must be regulated, so that European hauliers do not continue to have a unfair advantage - the result of cheaper fuel and less stringent demands on vehicle maintenance.

An FTA statement says: "The presence of low-cost foreign trucks on UK roads continues to have a destabilising effect on the road freight market. With fuel representing a third of operating costs, the fuel duty differential creates an immediate 7% cost advantage compared to UK-based operators."

The FTA argues that foreign trucks entering the UK often have full tanks containing 1,000 litres of diesel, which allows them to travel 1,600 miles before needing to refuel, which represents a week's work for a typical vehicle. The FTA wants a restriction on the amount of fuel foreign vehicles are allowed to have in their tanks when they enter the UK.