The private motorist buys, say, 60 litres of fuel a week. A commercial vehicle is using between 15 and 20 times that. Fuel is generally reckoned to be around 30% of the operating cost of the vehicle and this cost has nearly doubled over the past five years. Since this government came to power in May 1997, fuel has risen 25p per litre, or 42%. A third of this is due to the chancellor's tax increase.
When a business is faced with increased costs, it is forced to look at how to recoup them. But customers operating in an economy with very low inflation will not countenance price increases. And it is difficult to pass on costs because the transport industry is highly competitive and fragmented, mostly made up of independent hauliers operating a small number of trucks and self-employed owner-drivers. Businesses are failing everywhere.
We carry out a vital function but we have no bite whatsoever in the commercial world. We get your food to Tesco and Asda and Sainsbury's - but do you think that multimillion pound organisations such as these are interested that it costs the haulier so much more to move it?
Over the past 15 years the public has made it clear to successive governments that increasing income tax is a vote-loser. The government has been able to collect the necessary taxes via fuel. Many private motorists agree with this approach, preferring to pay at the pump rather than through their pay packets.
But the unfortunate outcome is that those people whose livelihoods depend on the use of fuel are being crippled. The fairest solution would be a tax rebate for commercial fuel users, a solution which I understand has been mooted by the government, but inadequately debated and never implemented. I hope, for the sake of our industry, a satisfactory way forward can be found.
Ray Godivala
Oak International Transport
The National Farmers' Union has long been concerned over the impact of fuel prices on our members and on retail prices for food. Recent actions demonstrate again the sheer desperation of many people who can see no future for themselves and their businesses - not because they are not trying to adapt to change, but because of the overwhelming impact of government decisions.
No one can believe that the right way to proceed is through a trial of strength between protesters and government. But neither can anyone believe that the government can refuse to listen to the legitimate grievances not just of farmers but of all affected by the approach the government has taken to fuel taxation.
Ben Gill
National Farmers' Union
The fuel protest movement is one of the most reactionary in living memory. The hauliers, the farmers and the commuters are resisting the inevitable rundown of the fossil-fuel economy. Oil took millions of years to lay down and 150 years to use up, and the forecourt queues are a taste of things to come unless alternative sources of energy are explored and different lifestyles endorsed.
Prof Andrew Dobson
Keele University
Driving to work this morning, I noticed a long queue of motorists at every petrol station, all of whom were filling their tanks. Surely there will soon be a fuel shortage?
Adrian Brown Southampton
