The Chancellor in his Spring Budget spoke about fairness. Commenting, Road Haulage Association chief executive Richard Burnett said: “Mr Hammond is ignoring the plight of the UK haulage industry that is being attacked on a daily basis by unfair competition from EU hauliers. We welcome the idea of a consultation process to realign the Road User Levy – but the progress is much too slow. 

“Foreign operators enter UK with tanks filled with cut-price diesel, they never fill up here and do more jobs than they are legally allowed. Yet the UK authorities do nothing. We need a rapid review and decisive action – or else UK hauliers will continue to be treated as second class citizens by our own Government.  It’s not fair and is damaging haulage business competitiveness.

“The Chancellor’s refusal to raise the Road User Levy with an offsetting reduction in VED is a green light for EU hauliers to carry on attacking our industry and getting away without paying their dues for the upkeep of our road network.”