Hauliers hit out at latest fuel duty hike

Today marks the eighth fuel duty increase since March 2007, with another on its way in three months' time on 1 January 2011.

Roadtransport.com asked various transport operators what impact today's 1p/litre rise will have on their operation:

Peter Larner, MD at Suckling Transport, based in West Thurrock, Essex, says: "The fuel duty increase is simply part of the total cost of our operation.

"And, like all other costs, it needs to be recovered through our charges.

"The responsibility we have to our customers is to mitigate the effect of that increase through efficiencies. Our challenge is to improve fuel consumption through innovative management and training of drivers. Safe driving and fuel efficient driving are two sides of the same coin, so we have a head start on our competitors."

Neil Rushworth, operations director at Bradford, West Yorkshire-based Expect Distribution, says his firm takes a mixed approach.

"On agreements with some customers, we are obliged to keep the rates the same for a period of time.

"For others, rates are structured using a flexible system we have that reflects changes in fuel duty.

"However, we are concerned as to how long customers can go on absorbing fuel duty rises."

Norman McBurney, owner of McBurney Transport in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, says:

"Despite all the fuel protests and pleas to the government it appears to have fallen on deaf ears. The increase will affect our fuel bills substantially over the year, and on top of the rises in the actual prices of the product in recent years it will make a difference."

"We operate a fuel surcharge escalator, and will pass the increase onto our customers. These increases have been going on for a number of years now, and it's just another cost to both us and our customers. We've all got used to it."

Sven Keulstra, general manager of Forest Freight in Barking, Essex, says: "We have a fuel surcharge and we have to move the cost onto the customer. But if duty goes up I normally try to increase the rates. When fuel duty goes up the rates go up."

Keulstra estimates that the company has paid an additional £250,000 on its annual fuel costs in the past year, and fuel is now the single biggest cost of running the business.

"It is just dead money and I cannot do much about it. We have to take the hit. So many customers do not want to pay the increase, but for us it is a case of keeping or losing a customer. We do not have much margin left to play with. We are between 2% and 3% margin at the moment. More rises will mean it just goes down and down."

Matthew Kibble, MD of Nelson, Lancashire-based Matthew Kibble Transport, says: "I'll work this latest rise into our fuel duty surcharge but there will come a point when we won't be able to keep passing on the increase.

"What I'd like to know is why does the bus sector get treated differently and receives an essential user rebate and yet the haulge industry - a vital sector itself - isn't allowed an essential user rebate?"

Anthony Finlayson-Green, MD at Cert Octavian, says: "With margins already so small, we really can't afford to absorb this hike ourselves. In most cases we therefore have a fuel duty escalator written into contracts."

Gary Whittle, commercial director at Meachers Global Logistics, says: "All our customers have a fuel surcharge mechanism, so this increase will be passed onto them and the consumer, albeit a month or so after we incur the costs."

Fuel duty rises since 1999