Hauliers gamble on a fast-track protest
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• Birmingham haulage firms have gone to the dogs to protest at high road and fuel taxes.
Members of the Birmingham branch of the Road Haulage Association staged a night out at the city's Perry Barr greyhound track to draw attention to the plight of hauliers suffering under crippling tax demands.
A dozen hauliers handed leaflets to hundreds of people at the track and asked them to sign protes: petitions.
They drew further attention to their protests by placing bets on the dogs.
FHA branch vice-chairman Derek McCarthy says: 'The Gov ernment's tax on lorries and fuel is stran gling the life out of the British haulage industry. The industry is going to the dogs because of the Government's policies so we thought why don't we go to the dogs to register our protest and get more support to try to cut the taxes.
"We are fighting for our livelihoods yet we don't want to go down the same road as the
French by blocking ports and causing other disruption for the general public," he adds. We thought a visit to the greyhound track would make an unusual way of protesting."
He holds Transport Secretary John Prescott and Chancellor Gordon Brown responsible for the haulage firms' plight. He says they have made it impossible for British hauliers to compete against Continental rivals who fill their fuel tanks on the Continent before coming over and undercutting domestic
operators.
,> McCarthy / points out that • the average road
tax on 40-tonne
HGVs is £370 r" on the Con
4") tinent corn / pared with E5,750 in the UK. Similarly, diesel costs 30p/lit in France, com pared with 80p in the UK.
McCarthy runs Aston-based Tachoserve, which re-manufactures tachographs. He concludes that Birmingham hauliers want an essential-user rebate and a reduction of at least 50% on vehicle excise duty.