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£10 toll planned for foreign lorry drivers
25 Jan 2012All foreign lorry drivers could be charged as much as £10 per day to use Britain's roads, under new Government proposals revealed today.
The move is designed to ensure foreign haulage companies, which currently use the UK road network for free, contribute to maintenance costs as well as British taxpayers and businesses.
It is also hoped the planned system of HGV road charging will boost competitiveness for UK hauliers, who will be charged the daily fee but allowed to claim it back.
Britain is currently one of the only countries in the EU who do not charge HGV drivers to use its roads, with UK drivers paying charges or tolls on most haulage trips across Europe.
The Department for Transport (DfT) claims the new proposals, which will be outlined in Parliament later, will create a fairer deal for the domestic haulage industry by "helping to level the playing field with foreign hauliers, boosting their market share and increasing employment and promoting growth in the UK".
Roads Minister Mike Penning said: "Each year there are around 1.5 million trips to the UK by foreign registered lorries - but none of them pay to use our roads, leaving UK businesses and taxpayers to foot the bill.
"A lorry road user charge would ensure that all hauliers who use our roads are contributing to their cost, regardless of where they are from - helping UK hauliers to get a fairer deal and increasing employment and promoting growth in the UK."
The Government is aiming to charge the maximum permitted by the EU - around £10 per day.
By law, the scheme cannot discriminate between UK-registered vehicles and vehicles from elsewhere in the EU meaning both UK and foreign registered lorries will have to pay the daily charge.
But policymakers are proposing to compensate British logistics companies for the charge, possibly though measures which will allow them to reclaim the fee against their road tax costs.
The DfT said that UK lorry drivers currently pay 16 euro (£13.34) in user charges for a two-day trip to the Netherlands, whereas a Dutch driver pays nothing to use British roads.
Professor Stephen Glaister, of the RAC Foundation, said that previous attempts to introduce road user charges were abandoned because of the cost and complexity of collecting charges from hauliers.
He told The Times that making sure that any system was revenue-neutral for British drivers was a major challenge for the Government.
Kate Gibbs of the Road Haulage Association said the plans went "some way to levelling the playing field," while Edmund King, president of the AA warned that motoring organisations would oppose charges for other users.
He told the newspaper: "We do not want this to be a Trojan horse for road pricing for all drivers because we certainly feel that drivers in the UK already pay more than enough in terms of fuel and road tax and pay for the roads many times over."
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Reader views (14)
It should be £100. Britain is viewed and treated with complete contempt by Europe so let's start doing what they do to us. In fact, everyone, everyone hates Britain. We are despised all around the world and blamed for everything. We're so awful that we are the first country that everyone heads for when in trouble. I wonder why. Perhaps someone in another country would like to explain.
- Dave, Devon, UK, 25/01/2012 12:03
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dhan raj, basildon
I see that you have never driven on the French highway, apart from Brittany, an a few others, you pay the 'Peage' and that is not cheap, any lorries coming into England have to use these roads, as it is more straightfoward then the N routes, try it, as it may open your mind!
I would charge them much more then a tenner!!
- Ed, London, 25/01/2012 11:37
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Good idea: start with £10 then ratchet it up annually. Overseas lorries are heavier than those allowed in the UK and they are left-hand drive which means they are a danger to cyclists. Add in the lack of knowledge of UK driving rules possessed by Polish and Czech drivers and there is a strong case for imposing this levy.
- Tin Foil Hat, London UK, 25/01/2012 11:28
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They would do a lot better if they could get them to pay speeding fines , congestion charges and emission zone charges. As long as we rely on camera based systems they will just laugh at us. I have even seen a right hand drive Vauxhall car on Bulgarian plates. How I envy these people who can drive what they like , how they like.
- Jack Spratt, Richmond, Surrey, 25/01/2012 10:55
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"£10 toll planned for foreign lorry drivers"
10 quid a day is very small beer to them.
I just saw a German registered trailer being towed by a Lithuanian registered tractor, probably driven by an underpaid Eastern EU driver.
The truck had huge supplementary tanks, so it could be driven all the way up to Scotland and back, without having to re-fuel.
How can British companies compete, with our astronomical cost of fuel and labour?
- John Smith, London, EUSSR, 25/01/2012 10:53
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Lorries shouldn't be on the road. They don't fit and cause huge amounts of congestion. Why can't they be loaded onto trains at Dover? Yes they'll have to be unloaded at the other end, but that's better than depriving Britain of a road network.
- John, London, 25/01/2012 10:49
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This will never happen as it restricts the movement of people under EU Law.
A better option would be to make all foreign HGV's pass a UK standard MOT test.
@dhan raj, basildon,
I would think it would be foreign registered HGV's not the drivers themselves.
- Lance Johnson, Canterbury, Kent, 25/01/2012 10:19
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I bet the European Soviet Union will veto this and we will comply in our usual compliant and servile way.
- David Davies, London, a Region of the European Soviet Union, 25/01/2012 10:16
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I fear Dave could be correct on this one.
- serox, London, 25/01/2012 10:13
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This Govt has definitely got something against foreigners and is being xenophobic. It won't work because foreign firms will simply hire Brits to drive their juggernauts into the UK, and will continue to damage our roads amnd pollute our air instead of sending goods by rail frieght.
- dhan raj, basildon, 25/01/2012 09:50
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... and what's the value of the damage done to our roads each day. £10 won't even cover the admin charge !
- Don, Milton keynes, 25/01/2012 09:49
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...and then it won't be too long before countries start charging visitors and their cars for using their roads...
- ID, South Coast, UK, 25/01/2012 09:43
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If British haulage companies have to pay tax to use foreign roads, it's about high time the UK did the same. The big question is why did it take us so damn long to catch up!?!
- Baron von Richtofen, Biggin Hill, 25/01/2012 09:40
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And who will end up paying for this.The British taxpayer as these companies will pass on the cost.Yet another tax on hard working Britains.
- dave, london, 25/01/2012 08:44
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