Sept/Oct 2004

If you want to influence the way lorry road-user charging is implemented in the UK, speak now - or live with the consequences of staying silent.

That urgent message was delivered by Derek Beevor, one of the most outspoken critics of the Government's current proposals, at a press gathering in early autumn. He warned that the specifications under consideration were being driven by manufacturers and others with vested interests, and threatened to impose new costs on operators without offering any clear benefits.

Beevor heads Road Tech Computer Systems, a company that offers various on-board data-gathering systems. However, he has made it clear through his steady campaigning on this issue that his arguments go far beyond any commercial considerations, and are rooted in his long-standing practical knowledge of the transport industry.

He is broadly supported in his views by other respected industry commentators such as Professor Alan McKinnon of Heriot-Watt University, and has also been implicitly endorsed for a long time by m.logistics magazine (see panel, right). We have regularly reported his views here.

 

In his latest presentation Beevor fastened on the notion of a "black box", widely touted as the focal point of the proposed data-gathering system. "This is a mistaken concept," he said. "The industry doesn't need a black box, it needs an open system."

He said all the functions of the proposed system could be wrapped up in a single Internet-based computer, and all the basic components were available off the shelf already. "But the suppliers don't want that." Nor were they likely to favour a mobile Internet-based system, he said, being more likely to prefer proprietary hardware and complex back-office systems.

He warned that the successful bidder for running the system "will want to sell your own data back to you." He demanded to know who would pay for fitting and maintenance of the equipment. He also warned that despite assurances that the system would not be used to monitor speeding or other traffic offences, "I've seen police officers suggesting that they're very interested in this possibility."

Turning to the Government's frequently-quoted assertion that the scheme would be "tax-neutral", Beevor demanded: "There has to be a victim or it's a waste of time. I want to know who it will be. I want the Government to come clean on this."

If the scheme brought about a reduction in the number of lorries on the road, he said, "who'll be priced off the road?"

With tongue in cheek, Beevor suggested that there should be a Fair Road User Charge Undertaking, or FRUC. Behind the irony, though, there was evident concern that the chosen system could pass into law relatively unchallenged, simply because opposition was so far uncoordinated and relatively muted.

Beevor admitted it would be difficult now for any government to ignore the worldwide move towards road-user charging; but UK operators owed it to themselves to speak out now, he said, in support of a system that offered the minimum cost and intrusion into their affairs.