Knowledge Centre
28th May 2008
Protests by truck drivers in London and Wales have highlighted the plight of smaller haulage firms faced with rocketing fuel prices.
Several hundred lorries blocked part of the A40 near Paddington for four hours yesterday, while a two-mile convoy of trucks disrupted the M4 between London and Cardiff.
Protest organisers TransAction 2007 have called for an "essential users" rebate on fuel for hauliers, while business groups such as the Federation of Small Businesses and British Chambers of Commerce have called for the October's planned 2p rise in fuel duty to be abandoned by the government.
Speaking to BBC News, protesters said that rising fuel costs were threatening to put them out of business altogether.
"Small companies are going down because of this," said Martyn Whiffen-Bent of Wyvern Cargo in Poole, Dorset. "They can't afford to pay the fuel bills."
Meanwhile Greenpeace, which supports progressively higher duty on fuel, has criticised the government's plans to retrospectively increase taxes on less efficient vehicles bought before 2001.
In a statement, the campaign group said: "It's the kind of measure that gives green taxes a bad name because it does not change behaviour."
Small haulage firms 'face ruin'
Several hundred lorries blocked part of the A40 near Paddington for four hours yesterday, while a two-mile convoy of trucks disrupted the M4 between London and Cardiff.
Protest organisers TransAction 2007 have called for an "essential users" rebate on fuel for hauliers, while business groups such as the Federation of Small Businesses and British Chambers of Commerce have called for the October's planned 2p rise in fuel duty to be abandoned by the government.
Speaking to BBC News, protesters said that rising fuel costs were threatening to put them out of business altogether.
"Small companies are going down because of this," said Martyn Whiffen-Bent of Wyvern Cargo in Poole, Dorset. "They can't afford to pay the fuel bills."
Meanwhile Greenpeace, which supports progressively higher duty on fuel, has criticised the government's plans to retrospectively increase taxes on less efficient vehicles bought before 2001.
In a statement, the campaign group said: "It's the kind of measure that gives green taxes a bad name because it does not change behaviour."
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