Biglorryblog has a right good moan at the DfT (so what else is new?)

There now follows a major “Harrummph!” warning. Thanks to the regular e-mail news update I get from my chums at TNN.co.uk I learn that the Belgian government is poised to introduce an obligatory tax disc on the country's motorways for all HGVs with effect from January 1st 2008.

The new tax disc will apply to both national and non-national HGVs, and according to Andre Antoine, the Walloon Minister for Transport, Belgian hauliers will receive compensation through a significant reduction in their road tax.

Well doesn’t that just about beat everything? There's plucky little Belgium sorting out the problem of taxing foreign trucks driving on its main roads and what’s been the response from the Department for Transport?A complete and utter vacuum.

For more years than I care to remember Biglorryblog has been banging on about the need to introduce a paper vignette/tax disc scheme in the UK similar to that being planned by the Belgians to combat the influx of foreign trucks over here. However, according to various wisenheimers paper discs aren't workable and wouldn't cover the cost of setting up such a scheme. Oh really?Of course the same people insisted the answer was a kind of electronic road pricing. And look where that got us.

I surely don’t need to remind BLB readers that both the FTA and RHA were well and truly waltzed up the aisle on Lorry Road User Charging on the promise that it would provide a level playing field against foreign operators----only for them to be dumped unceremoniously at the altar when Transport Secretary Darling Alistair (sorry that should be the other way around) decided not to take LRUC any further. And was there a plan B? There was not. Meanwhile, foreign operators with cheap fuel, lower taxes and low paid drivers continue to use British roads for nothing and by putting our faith in some pie in the sky, sometime/maybe/never road tolling scheme we've lost literally years of precious time when we could have actually done something about them. 

What I’ve never understood is why the DfT actually DID dump LRUC. After all it was the perfect stalking horse for congestion charging for every motorist in the UK and given the power of the haulage industry it could have forced them to take it whether they wanted it or not. PLUS the fact that the Germans had already done all the hard graft on the technology with their Toll Maut system so the working model was there already.

But ultimately the one question I’d like an answer to is this: If the Belgians can launch a tax disc system that includes a rebate for their domestic hauliers why can’t the DfT?Yes that is a good question..isn't it?