FTA responds to road pricing schemes

Released on: March 16, 2008, 4:04 pm

Press Release Author: Garry Shipman / Haul-It Nationwide Ldt

Industry: Transportation & Logistics

Press Release Summary: The FTA responded to the governments local road pricing
scheme proposal by saying that future schemes must recognize that haulage vehicle
deliveries are essential services and should recognise the impact on deliveries to
businesses.

Press Release Body: On 4 March the Secretary of State for Transport Ruth Kelly
effectively ruled out the prospect of any national road pricing scheme in the
foreseeable future but suggested that local schemes under present consideration by
local authorities, in conjunction with new investment in public transport, should go
ahead.

The Freight Transport Association responded on 11 March by publishing a summary
paper on road pricing schemes in England. This examined the ten current prospective
schemes which have been awarded grants from the Government's Transport Innovation
Fund in order to assess the viability of local road pricing or congestion schemes.

Haul-It Nationwide Ldt's sales director, Gary Shipman, agrees with the FTA that
commercial deliveries are an essential service and that shops, offices, schools,
restaurants, homes and virtually every other location relies on daily deliveries.
Any future road pricing scheme must recognize that haulage vehicle deliveries are,
as Stephen Kelly put it, \"essential services\" and local schemes should include the
impact on deliveries to businesses in the charged area and the consequential impact
on the periphery of the charging zone.

In the long run this means that the cost will be born by everyone, including the end
customers, and this needs to be balanced against the accepted need to reduce
congestion, not to raise revenue.

The FTA went on to identify a number of conditions that they felt should be
fulfilled by such schemes including improved school transport, relaxation of
delivery curfews, alternatives for journeys to work, discounts and incentives for
the adoption of environmental good practice.

Most importantly there must be the ability to measure the costs and benefits in such
a way that each scheme must be inter-operable with any other scheme implemented in
the UK and the rest of the EU.

Web Site: http://www.driveragency.com/

Contact Details: Garry Shipman, Sales Director, Haul-It Nationwide Ltd.,
garryshipman@haul-itnationwide.co.uk

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