London, UK: The Road Haulage Association has welcomed many of the conclusions from the parliamentary transport committee’s road pricing report.
The association believes that charging needs to be national and “piecemeal” local charging schemes simply undermine business ability to invest.
The committee’s latest report has outlined that road pricing is an inevitable replacement for current fuel duty and vehicle excise duty, according to its findings. The inquiry was carried out due to the large value to the Exchequer of current duty – around £35bn – which could rapidly disappear during electrification and decarbonisation of road transport.
It has highlighted that “fairness and public acceptance” are essential for any scheme – and it should be “revenue neutral” for road users.
The committee also called for new schemes to be replacements, rather than additions to current duty; to consider the impact on vulnerable groups; as well as not impacting modal shift or active travel targets.
To achieve this goal, the report claims the government needs to make it clear that users of electric vehicles need to know “they will be required to pay for road usage” – a situation currently absent from the taxation system.
The committee also highlighted the complex issues of how to introduce road user charging without either double taxing users of petrol and diesel vehicles or undermining the switch to electric vehicles.
RHA policy director for England and Wales, Duncan Buchanan said: “The switch away from diesel and petrol for most commercial transport is now enshrined in the phase out of new fossil-fueled vehicles. There may be some exemptions, but broadly we will move to an EV future. The committee has highlighted how complex the change in taxation will be in this area.
“A real concern for commercial road operators of lorries, coaches and vans is the multiplicity of local charging schemes based on a range of standards. We believe that road charging needs to be national so that businesses and individuals can invest in vehicles confident they will be usable for a full life-cycle.
“Piecemeal local charges set by local government such as the Boundary Charge proposed for London, the plan by Bath to charge all lorries under their CAZ rules, and random zero emission zones, simply undermine business ability to invest.
“We need transition to net zero and road user charging to be done with the road user and vehicle owner at the heart of decision making.”
