Revenue from the introduction of the HGV Road User Levy should be used to give UK hauliers an essential user rebate, Malcolm Group MD Andrew Malcolm has said.

From 1 April foreign registered 44-tonne vehicles will be charged £10 a day for each day spent in the UK.

British hauliers will pay HGV Road User Levy charges at the same time as VED, with VED bands reduced correspondingly to ensure there is no rise for at least 90% of the UK vehicle parc.

Malcolm told MT: “I think it is a good thing. Foreign hauliers do not cause us a lot of hassle here north of the border directly. They might do indirectly, but not directly. I think it is right.

“I just hope we see the money going back into the road infrastructure. Given the amount of duty we are paying on fuel I do not see it going back into the infrastructure.

“If they want to really get the hauliers onside why can they not get the money from the road levy charge and give us an essential user rebate? This is new money they haven’t had before, so why not?

“Our industry needs every bit of help it can get,” he added. “Everybody in the land is affected by the impact on the cost of running trucks.”

Dominic Yeardley, MD of Hull-based international haulier Eurovision Logistics, said the impending introduction of the Levy had not come out in a “blaze of glory”. He believed it was a wasted opportunity.

“It still irks me that it costs more to go through France or Switzerland. It is a step in the right direction but if I was a foreign haulier I wouldn’t be put off coming here for the sake of £10 a day, not when they can do 500 miles per day on very large tanks of cheap diesel.”

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