The Freight Transport Association has supported conservative shadow transport secretary Chris Grayling in calling for a revised form of the Lorry Road User Charge (LRUC), similar to the one scrapped by the present Government in July 2005, to be introduced.

According to the FTA, UK road haulage operates at a substantial competitive disadvantage against vehicles from overseas as the result of diesel duty charged at 47p per litre in the UK against 22p for the rest of Europe.

The scheme abandoned by the Government last year would have taxed all lorries based on the distance they travelled, with a compensatory reduction in fuel duty for UK vehicles.

It would have applied to all vehicles operating in the UK, both the domestic fleet and foreign visitors.

According to the FTA, one in seven of the heaviest vehicles on UK roads - articulated vehicles over 38 tonnes - comes from abroad.

FTA External Affairs Director Geoff Dossetter said: “The Government's Lorry Road User Charge scheme failed to go ahead because it became too complicated and too costly. Clearly a revised scheme would need to learn from the mistakes of the past. However, the logic of a distance tax on lorries, accompanied by a reduction in the enormous amounts of fuel duty, which they pay, remains sound.

“At the same time a scheme that resulted in a charge being made on foreign vehicles working in the UK has to be fair. At present such vehicles enjoy an entirely free ride whilst UK vehicles working in Europe are obliged to pay a range of taxes, tolls and charges.”

The association said a 44-tonne lorry, travelling 75,000 miles a year and buying only UK fuel, pays an annual fuel duty bill of more than £30,000.

In 2005 the FTA, and the Road Haulage Association, commissioned the Burns Report investigating high fuel duty and foreign vehicles. Following its publication, the government established the Haulage Industry Task Group, which has yet to produce its final findings, the FTA said.

In 2006 FTA launched a campaign entitled ‘Tell us who you are’, calling for foreign vehicles entering the UK to provide details of their ownership, safety record, last test, roadworthiness record, destination etc in order to facilitate the work of UK enforcement agencies in carrying out roadside checks and other road safety inspections.

It argued that when secretary of state for transport Alistair Darling announced the scrapping of the LRUC, he said that a tax of this type for lorries would be incorporated in an overall national road-pricing scheme for all vehicles, but it would not be implemented for about 15 years.

As such the FTA said UK lorries would continue to suffer from the competitive disadvantages of high fuel duty and foreign vehicles for many years without any Government support to improve their situation.

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