June/July 2003

Proposals to charge trucks for road use in the UK by tracking their movements by satellite, advanced by the Chancellor in last year's Budget, have met with little enthusiasm from the transport community, to judge from the findings of the Lex Transfleet Report on Freight Transport 2003.

Only one fleet manager in three questioned for the report supported the idea of making satellite-based tracking and charging systems compulsory, and only 37 per cent thought it would be a fair way of charging for road use. Sixty-two per cent of said that if such a system were introduced, they would have to increase their prices.

Perhaps not surprisingly, though, three out of four respondents liked the idea of making these systems compulsory for foreign vehicles entering the country.

Thirty-six per cent did agree that road charging based on satellite tracking might reduce journey times, although that proportion is little more than half of the 69 per cent who considered road congestion to be a "major concern". Among measures taken to combat congestion, the most popular was changing delivery times (adopted by 38 per cent of respondents), followed by changing routes (35 per cent).

 

Only 34 per cent of own-account fleet operators and 41 per cent of hauliers claimed to know about the proposed telematics-based charging scheme.

The underlying survey was conducted by Swift Research early this year, and is based on interviews with 252 fleet managers.