May/June 2004

Despite the rising clamour of concern over the UK Government's real intentions in developing a lorry road user charging scheme, and worries about its cost and the likely long-term ramifications, a programme to invite tenders for the supply of equipment and systems is going ahead.

Following a "supplier open day" held in late spring, the Government is expected to publish a list of suppliers who will be invited to tender (this is called a preliminary Invitation To Negotiate, or ITN). The Government line is still that the scheme will be introduced by 2008.

However, one of the most outspoken critics of the proposed system, Professor Alan McKinnon of Heriot-Watt University, reiterated his reservations over the plan during a keynote address during the Institute of Logistics and Transport's annual conference in June.

He repeated his belief that the scheme would probably cost five times as much to administer as it would save in taxes not currently paid by foreign lorry operators working in the UK. It would not therefore meet the Government's stated objective of "levelling the playing field". "Once can only assume there is some other agenda," he said.

 

His own best guess was that this must be the objective of eventually introducing a more general road-user charging scheme, motivated by environmental or other concerns. However, he pointed out that the likelihood of this being applied to cars appeared to be many years away. The implication was that transport was to be made a guinea pig for a wider-ranging but more distant scheme that might never materialise at all.

Derek Beevor, software company head and an even more vehement scourge to the Government on this subject, has warned of numerous other possible risks attached to the scheme. He says that the ability to track vehicles wherever they go could be used as an "instant enforcement" mechanism for speeding and tachograph offences. Other as-yet unspecified environmental charges could also be levied, he warns.

Alan McKinnon underlined the risks of this by pointing out that the system envisaged by the Government "will have a huge capability built in from the start."

He also had strong reservations about how truck operators will react - especially if charging is eventually varied according to time of day, which is another Government objective. "Will drivers park up during traffic peaks, as the transport secretary is suggesting?" he asked. "Where exactly will all these lorries park?"