A new document from the DfT this week confirms that government revenues from fuel duty have tripled since 1987 – yes, that’s right, tripled.
Transport Statistics Great Britain 2013 - a compilation of previously released numbers relating to passenger and freight transport – shows that in 2011 alone, UK fuel duty came to a hefty £26.7bn, adding (somewhat gleefully in our view): “This was more than the government spent on transport in the same year”. You don’t say.
Vehicle excise duty, meanwhile, generated £5.9bn for government coffers in 2012, the report reveals – more than twice the amount taken off vehicle owners in 1987.
How they get away with it, we’re not quite sure but the Hub does wonder whether operators will be quite as delighted about these statistics as the DfT appears to be.
The same report confirms, by the way, that traffic levels in Great Britain are set to soar in coming years, with traffic in 2040 some 43% higher than 2010 in a charge led largely by light goods vehicles (no surprise there - hardly anyone can afford the fuel bills of larger vehicles any more).
It just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it?