RHA calls for fuel duty cut in election manifesto

The Road Haulage Association is calling on the next government to cut fuel duty by 3ppl to boost jobs and growth, and commit to making no increase to fuel duty in the next parliament.

Launching its General Election 2015 Manifesto at the CV Show, RHA chief executive Richard Burnett said: “The UK’s economic recovery will rely on maintaining consumer confidence and boosting business output, keeping pounds in pockets. Today we are proposing 17 measures the next government should act upon to help achieve these aims.”

The measures include:

* Make available urgently a straightforward, quality-based system of grants for companies towards the cost of getting drivers licensed and qualified to drive in the industry

* Maintain the current levels of VED (equal to the HGV road user levy) throughout the coming parliament

* Commit to the current road maintenance budget as a minimum and make additional cash available where there is a clear need to do so, as was the case in the last parliament

* Ensure that Highways England makes the cultural change needed to engage with the haulage industry to a greater degree and to make more effective use of the mass of data that it gathers

* Adopt a vision for roads that accepts they should be well-built and maintained, with surfaces that are even and minimise road noise; use signalling technologies to improve traffic flow; and use information technology to ensure that road users have timely and reliable information

* Highways England should use its strong influence to ensure that appropriate secure parking facilities are provided across the strategic road network

* Improve the implementation of Driver CPC in the UK, and the UK in turn should be a leading voice for progressive reform of the directive within the EU

* Be more attentive to industry needs and views in relation to CO2 reduction and be much more transparent than the previous administration

* Recognise the outstanding value of Euro 6 trucks in terms of air quality and, if minded to incentivise the uptake of cleaner HGVs, introduce a scrappage scheme based around Euro 6

* Use its influence to ensure the effective collection of haulage crime statistics and sharing of information and good practice among police forces

* Lead a campaign to promote awareness of and adherence to the Highway Code among cyclists

* Urgently come forward with a practical, robust response to ensure that the dangerous offence of tachograph record falsification is eliminated from the UK’s roads

* Explore with the RHA and others the possibility of a formula for allowing casual/occasional workers to be paid on a self-employed basis, as recommended by the Office of Tax Simplification

* Move to end business uncertainty around investment allowances by setting out a long-term framework of meaningful incentives for SMEs. An AIA of £500,000 is the minimum that RHA members would see as appropriate

* Acknowledge the importance and good work of the haulage industry in public as well as in private

* Continue to develop the strong engagement with the RHA, mindful of its role as the key representative of the professional haulage industry.

Source: logisticsmanager.com
Portal: logistik-express.com