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Page 28
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IT MUST BE apparent by now that the Chancellor and his friend 'Prudence' are not going to reduce duty on the price of diesel.
Successive calls for a reduction have been met with, at best, a limited response in not increasing the tax on fuel in line with inflation.This is hardly going to set the world alight or create a level playing field.
Even if the tax were reduced. what would stop the users of haulage (in particular the supermarkets) from driving the price of freight down to that new level, thus removing any gain the operators may or may not get?
Farmers have already seen that they have no compunction in driving down the price of milk and I am sure they see fuel as just another commodity. However, there is something hauliers can do now to reduce their costs and keep every penny of those savings for themselves.
Conunercial Motor ran an article (7 September ) highlighting the work of the government's Freight Best Practice (FBP) team.
They have identified that by utilising efficiencies within normal daily driving, savings of as much as 5%.or in many cases more,can be made.These are savings that go straight into the pocket of the operator and not the supermarket.
By selecting cost-efficient routes and cost-efficient driving practices firms can easily save money. One example of the detail they go into is that every gear change costs an operator 1.4p, so 100 fewer gear changes a day saves £1.40.
That doesn't sound a lot, but multiply it by every trip and every vehicle every day,every year and that's a significant saving. With the technology now out there the operator doesn't even have to do it for himself—the major companies line up to supply the very technology the operator needs to take advantage of these savings, including one free of charge from the FBP team.
Of course the operator can wait for 'Prudence' to make up her mind, which would be nice and long-overdue, but I for one would recommend a healthy dose of FBP while we wait.
Robert Roweth County HCV Route Manager Huntingdon, Cambs
OSeeFreigtit Best Practice,pg 20