Comment: Fuel Duty, ‘Enough is enough’
“Diesel, quite literally, represents the lifeblood of the UK haulage industry and accounts for more than one third of hauliers’ operating costs. The industry now pays nearly 10 pence per litre more for fuel that at this time last year and, as a result, the Government have received a VAT windfall of at least 1 pence per litre.
This is an industry that is doing all it can to work towards economic recovery yet because of its very nature; it is the industry on which the recovery of the rest of UK plc is entirely dependent. Of course we urge our members to pass on the increases whenever possible but the time is fast approaching when their customers will start to say enough is enough.
Fuel duty currently represents 57.19 pence per litre; tomorrow’s increase of a further 1 pence per litre will make a bad situation even worse. Every 1 pence per litre increase, whether on the price of fuel or fuel duty, equates to a rise in a hauliers’ fuel costs of approximately £600 per vehicle. In spite of the additional revenue, to learn that there is insufficient cash for the Treasury to support a fuel price stabiliser, is very disappointing.
At this critical time in the UK’s economic recovery, tomorrow’s rise will ensure that many road hauliers face a very uncertain Christmas and, with duty set to rise again in January, the outlook for the New Year looks bleak indeed,” says RHA Head of Media Relations Kate Gibbs.
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