Truck bosses to meet MPs

Jul 2 2008 by Peter Milby, Evening Gazette

THE HEADS of three leading Teesside trucking companies were due to take their place in Westminster today as thousands of hauliers lobbied MPs against rising fuel prices.

Chiefs from Bulmers at Middlesbrough, Prestons in Potto, and Devereux at Billingham, added their voice to calls for the Government to scrap a 2p/litre rise in duty planned for October and bring fuel tax into line with the rest of Europe.

Anne Preston, who joined the foot protesters converging on Parliament, said the industry was being choked out by foreign companies running on cheap diesel.

“Only 19% of trucks going in and out of the UK are UK hauliers. It used to be 75%,” she said.

The UK haulage industry is the highest taxed in Europe, paying on average 25p/litre more than its rivals.

Mrs Preston said the Government should take immediate action to bring Britain into line.

But calls for a fuel duty regulator, which would relieve some of the pain, are likely to be blocked today as MPs debate the measure as part of the Finance Bill.

Members of the powerful Environmental Audit Committee, which has already flexed its muscles over biofuels with potentially damaging consequences for Teesside, are against any such move.

Malcolm Dodds, Road Hauliers Association manager for the northern region, said talk of ‘catastrophe’ and ‘doom’ were overstated.

“Here, it’s not so much a case of companies closing down, but there is evidence of companies selling vehicles and laying people off. Bosses coming out of the office and getting back into the trucks themselves,” he said.

Of the 1,200 haulage firms operating in the North-east, 47% are small businesses running one to 10 trucks.

David Nicholson of Nicholsons Transport in Billingham, which has 30 trucks on the road, said Teesside was ‘more resilient’ than other areas of the country where firms had already closed.

“I thought the industry would have been passed the tipping point before now to be honest. We are having to pass a lot of the fuel surcharge on to our customers, although we are absorbing a chunk ourselves, which is going straight to the bottom line.”

David Fox of David Fox transport said he would be supporting the protestors in spirit. “We can’t afford to get as far as London because fuel’s too expensive,” he quipped. “But we have written to our MP expressing our discontent.

“This is a unique situation. We have had recession and fuel increases and confrontations with the Government over tax before, but we have never had fuel inflation as fast as this. It might stabilise, but I don’t think it will ever go below £1/litre again.”