Lorries to be charged for road use
Transport minister says cars and vans will follow
Lorry drivers will be charged for using the roads within four years, transport secretary Alistair Darling said yesterday, hinting that it could be extended to cars and vans.
It's core to the government's response to growing congestion, while building more roads is not the answer. the government also sees the M6 toll road as a success.
In July, the Government published a study into the feasibility of road pricing in the UK, which concluded that the system was feasible. The caveat -- on which it clearly failed to deliver with respect to speed cameras -- was that "people need to be confident that road pricing is designed to deliver transport and other benefits, rather than as a means of raising more revenue".
How would it work? Vehicles would be fitted with location fixing technology to monitor both mileage travelled and time taken. Drivers would then be charged depending on the journeys they made, with road and fuel duty cut. It would be weighted so that those who drive above average mileage would most likely face an increase in current motoring costs, whereas light users would see their costs drop.
The Government study suggested that the equipment necessary to deliver a full position-based charging scheme will not be available "in a mass market, low cost form, until at least 2014."
Speaking to the Freight Transport Association's annual dinner, the Transport Secretary said Britain could not solve all its transport problems by building new roads, as the financial and environmental cost would be too great. Therefore, it had to make the most of what it already had.
Most roads were not congested at all times, only in rush hour, so people had to be persuaded to travel at different times. A key part of doing that would be road pricing, he said, and it would be introduced in the next four years for lorry drivers at least.
Road pricing for lorry drivers would be fairer, "not least because foreign lorry drivers will pay their share for using roads here", he said.
And if expanded to cover cars and vans, road pricing could achieve £12 billion savings a year in reliability and time savings, he claimed.
Mr Darling said: "The benefits come from paying the costs of the driving we do - a higher price when the roads are busy, a lower price when they are not, as we have long since become used to with other services - mobile phonecalls for instance."
The next step would be to work with "forward-thinking" local authorities to help them put in place a package of measures which tackle congestion problems.
"The objective is clear - to get more use out of the road network," he said.
Links:
Road charging: http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Road%20charging
London Congestion Charge: www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_control/documents/contentservertemplate/dft_index.hcst?n=5954&l=2
European perspectives: www.rapp.uk.com/static/road_user_charging.htm
Smug git Alastair Darling said:
And if expanded to cover cars and vans, road pricing could achieve £12 billion savings a year in reliability and time savings, he claimed.
....and generate billions of extra money from the already over burdened motorist.
There you go, peeps. Labour hates cars. In black and white. Labour also hates road freight too.
At least this isn't a stealth tax. Its as plain as the nose on your face.
W*nkers.
>> Edited by GregE240 on Wednesday 27th October 11:43
. Can someone explain to me why, in simple laymans terms, they just don't invest in a decent railway structure to get the long distance haulage off the main trunk roads. However it still has to be delivered to the shops/factories beyond that point . 
I know what shall we extend it to all vehicles as well, nice earner me thinks . Usual Neu Labia tripe, tax re-packaged, with a net increase in it somewhere that will become apparent about 3 threes after its introduced
. Conversely, still in Neu Labia style, its just another way to gauge public opinion by the back door, release the info and wait for the feedback before deciding to introduce it or not
. Harry
The Transport Ministry should be making movement of goods and services faster and cheaper. They should not be reaping taxes hindering movement and making a fecking profit.
DAZ
>> Edited by dazren on Wednesday 27th October 11:54
article said:
Most roads were not congested at all times, only in rush hour, so people had to be persuaded to travel at different times.
Ok, I personally have no problem coming in to work at 10.30am and leaving at 2 in the afternoon, thereby doing my bit for the environment and avoiding the rush hour congestion at the same time. I'll just forward this article to my employers.
Sure they won't mind.
They say that the fuel duty will be cut (yeah right!!!) but I can only see the cost of motoring for every invividual and company in the UK getting higher and higher under this lot.
chrisjl said:
Doesn't fuel tax already laregly achieve the same goal (with the added advantage of encouraging more fuel efficient vehicles), but without the big brother monitoring aspect?
Yes but there is little flexibility for ripping the public off.
By having two sources of rip-off tax, the Gov. can spit-roast the public, taxation-metaphorically speaking.
peetbee said:
Not forgetting of course that MP's will be able to claim their charges back as travel expenses, so we get to pay for their travel too
Yes they get 65p (or thereabouts) a mile for the first 20K. If we claim againts tax the most we can get is 40p for the first 10K then 25p after.
I don't understand why the same tax rules don't apply to them as the rest of us.
Also doesn't Tony's use of the Queens flight count as a perk?
Chaffeur driven car?
What are the use of Downing Street and Chequers worth at London rental prices?
I think Tony should be operating on the same rules as the rest of us, even (especially) if it results in a huge apparent payrise to him. Just before the election would be better.
Right then, I have 10 more years to enjoy blighty before I move somewhere else where my every move isn't watched and charged by a great big corporate nanny state.
Total w@nkers. What is the tory view on this, this is enough to make my mind up come election time.
BUT it'll cost them more to do this than it would to build some new mass hypertransport system.
Absolytly pathetic, we already pay for the roads, more than pay for them, and thats before fuel duty.
Right, lorry driver faced with an extra £5000 a year taxes etc, hmmm, I can't afford that, put it on to the person I'm delivering for.
OK, now Asda can't afford to just give away profits to the lorry drivers now paying more tax, so we end up paying more in the supermarket.
Pay more in the supermarket, pay more VAT in total on all cost increases.
Even an extra penny per truck mile for every truck in the country in tax has to come from somewhere, and someone has to pay for it. In the end, the consumer pays, and thats gonna cause pretty bad economic problems when we want to be paid more to afford food and goods!
Where will the money come from?
Just can't keep taxing the things that keep the country going. Trucks are the only decent logistical infrastructure in this country now trains are gone, so taxing the very infrastructure even more is going to end in tears!!!
Hmmm
Dave
:Mr Darling said:
The next step would be to work with "forward-thinking" local authorities to help them put in place a package of measures which tackle congestion problems.
What this actually says is:
:Mr Darling said:
The next step is to work with a local authority that has made it completely impossible to get from A to B without being stuck in a massive jam or having to fit crampons onto your car to get over the massive "traffic calming" measures. i.e. Reading
The incentive for the local governments will be slow traffic down and we get MORE money as the drivers will take longer to get there!
Question:
Will we be able to claim a refund if there is an accident blocking the road or there are roadworks holding us up?
Dear Mr. Darling,
off and die Love,
The Motorist.
:Mr Darling said:
Speaking to the Freight Transport Association's annual dinner, the Transport Secretary said Britain could not solve all its transport problems by building new roads, as the financial and environmental cost would be too great. Therefore, it had to make the most of what it already had.
Most roads were not congested at all times, only in rush hour, so people had to be persuaded to travel at different times. A key part of doing that would be road pricing, he said, and it would be introduced in the next four years for lorry drivers at least.
It seems that Mr Darling has forgotten that there is a general election not too far away, perhaps us motorists can dampen his fireworks.
rmhodv said:
It seems that Mr Darling has forgotten that there is a general election not too far away, perhaps us motorists can dampen his fireworks.
Don't dampen them, collect them; and then stick themup his interfering rectum light the blue touchpaper and stand well back...and hope he's in shitehall at the time.....
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