The ETA has been in favour of road-user charging for over twenty years. The last government even began to introduce a scheme for road freight but dropped the idea. The option they chose to pursue was rather over complicated.
The ETA is a member of the Transport Taxation Group – an association of organisations interested in the effects that taxation can have on transport’s impact on the environment. We recognise that the coalition government has said it will not introduce a road-user charge this parliament. But we can introduce one for lorries. The ETA regards this as a stop gap measure because all vehicles should pay such a charge.
We needed more information to support our case the coalition government could introduce a lorry road-user charge system quite quickly. So our friends at Campaign for Better Transport commissioned the Metropolitan Transport Research Unit to look at the issues involved.
Their report (with a summary ), out today, shows how a simple, low-cost system could be introduced quickly using tried and tested technologies and provide benefits to our environment and health, the transport industry and the exchequer.
There is more debate to be had (especially around who sets the charges, on what basis those charges are set and how transparent the whole process is) but this report is a good beginning.
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