RHA campaigns for rate increases

British business must accept that it needs to pay more for road haulage as a result of soaring cost inflation, warns the Road Haulage Association.

The Treasury’s insistence on raising diesel duty on September 1 makes three increases in nine months, totalling 12%; and by next April, duty will have risen by 16% in as many months. All this in the midst of a deep recession and credit crunch!

Motorists may not have noticed this tax grab but firms providing road haulage services certainly have – and so have their customers. While companies in general are seeking price freezes or reductions from suppliers, they face demands for desperately-needed increases in haulage rates.

“The duty on diesel is a key cost element, accounting for 20% of the total operating cost of a 44-tonne lorry. To put it another way, duty is now a 25% tax on the operation of the road transport element of the supply chain of British industry,” says RHA director of policy Jack Semple.

“The duty increase is being imposed on top of a 4.5 pence a litre rise in the commodity price of diesel since the spring Budget – when the Chancellor predicted that energy prices would fall!

“The haulage industry knows the difficulties facing many of its customers. But hauliers must have haulage rates that are sustainable. Customers who object should focus their attention on Treasury ministers who are fuelling cost inflation, not on transport firms struggling to survive,” Semple said.