1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140 
4 different
Page 29
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
(ifferential
The road transport industry's sustained demand for a differential training levy to replace the previous blanket levies has at last borne fruit—but not in the way originally sought. Instead of a differential between goods and passenger operators and the motor trade, for which the Road Haulage Association in particular has pressed, the RTITB (studiously avoiding use of the word "differential") has produced a three-tier system.
Understandably, in view of its earlier comments, the RHA does not regard the new scheme with any great favour. The burden of the Association's message to the Minister for Employment and Productivity last August was that the road haulage industry was paying an excess of levy over what was returnable in grant, and was subsidizing other industries covered by the Board. And it feels that the new system does not meet this objection. The only real change is that large and medium-sized companies will pay more, and small companies less. Any shift of total payment as between industries will occur only because the industry with the fewest small companies will pay proportionately more of the total bill.
The Board has done its sums to establish where the split between each tier has to fall in order to produce about the same total levy income as before, and one effect seems to be that even the "medium small" company will pay at the highest rate; after all, a gross payroll of £15,000 means a company with fewer than a dozen people, even in the lower-paid end of road transport. And, perhaps because it wishes to have a margin to cover possible errors in calculation, the Board appears to be asking for rather more money than before. The previous levy was to raise the equivalent of 15.6m in a full year, whereas the new levy aims to raise 16m.
But at least the new scheme, which can be assumed to meet the Minister's request to the RTITB to investigate some form of differential, is a move in the right direction. It breaks new ground and provides some relief for small companies; and the PV0A is, for example, probably better pleased with a three-tier system than it would have been with another form of differential.
Over the water
It is only 21 years since Frank Bustard started the first commercial roll-on/roll-off ferry service, from England to Northern Ireland, and it is only about 13 years since the first TES service to the Continent was inaugurated. The guide to ferry services in this special international issue of CM is a testimony to the remarkable transformation in road vehicle ferry services since then; and the pace is quickening year by year.
The international haulier is pushing farther and farther afield and the legal way is being cleared for him as fast as possible by the indefatigable negotiators from the Ministry of Transport and the trade associations. Unfortunately the British policy of "no permits, no taxes, no quotas" is not echoed by all our European neighbours, but the British team is absolutely right in seeking the most liberal possible agreements in breaking down the barriers to cheap, fast transport.