The Road Haulage Association welcomes the news that the Prime      Minister intends to revisit the Conservative proposal to ‘share the  risk’ of higher fuel prices between the government and road users.

“We supported the proposal of a fair fuel stabiliser when it was first raised four years ago and we shall be supporting it now”, said RHA chief executive Geoff Dunning. “This will certainly go some way to help relieve the crippling financial burden currently being faced by UK hauliers and we shall be pressing for its implementation as soon as possible.

“We were greatly encouraged when the Coalition, within weeks of taking power, proposed the possibility of a fuel duty stabiliser and were extremely disappointed when the plans were shelved for ‘financial reasons’. In 2009, road users contributed nearly £50 billion to Treasury coffers”, Dunning continued. “£32 billion of that came from fuel duty and VAT on fuel yet only a small proportion was returned through road building and maintenance. The fact that the price of fuel before tax has risen dramatically means that the Treasury will get far more revenue than expected from the hike in fuel duty on 1 January and the VAT increase on 4 January, so 2011 looks set to be a bumper year for tax income from fuel.

“The money is there”, concluded Dunning. “Let’s see some of it being used in a way that may well provide the lifeline that UK hauliers have been so desperately waiting for”.

December van registrations

Total van and truck registrations came to 20,260 units in December, up 25.6% for the month. Full year figures were 257,373 units for 2010, 16.4% up on last year.

Trucks were up 51.6% to 3,174 in December, full year at 34,458 units just 0.8% down. Vans performed better, up 21.7% to 17,086 in December; full year at 222,915 units, up 19.6%.

“During 2010 van and truck registrations posted one of the strongest annual rates of growth ever, at 15.9%, as volumes started to recover from the recession,” said Paul Everitt, SMMT chief executive. The van market rose in all but one month in 2010, boosted by better than expected business confidence and improved output from the construction sector. Truck registrations grew rapidly in the second half of 2010 and ended the year on par with 2009 levels. “While we still have a long way to go to get volumes back to pre-recession levels, we expect more growth in 2011 and 2012,” he continued.