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6 May 2003

Modernising the Taxation of the Haulage Industry- Lorry Road User Charge: Progress Report 2

The purpose of this document is to describe the Governments current thinking on this issue and describe the work that has been done to implement the Charge in the last 12 months. 

The Charge arises from the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s announcement in his 2002 Budget speech, that the Government would modernise the taxation of the haulage industry to deliver its commitment to make sure that all hauliers’ pay towards the costs that they impose in the UK regardless of their nationality.

The Government intends to introduce a Lorry Road-User Charge so that hauliers pay an amount related to the distance that they travel on UK roads.  The Charge may vary according to lorry size, road type and possibly time of day.  Because UK hauliers already pay towards the costs they impose in the UK (through fuel and Vehicle Excise duties), the Government will introduce offsetting tax cuts through a reduction in fuel duty paid by hauliers at the same time as introducing the Charge.

In the next phase work will be done to devise:

  • a scheme for frequent users of UK roads.  This is likely to involve the use of On-Board Equipment to help determine distances travelled, probably exploiting satellite and/or microwave technology;
  • a scheme for lorry operators who travel on UK roads infrequently and so may not want to use On-Board Equipment;
  • the options for delivering the fuel duty reduction alongside the Charge;
  • an outline business case and Invitation to Tender.

Any queries can be directed to:
lruc.enquiries@hmce.gsi.gov.uk

The report is available below in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF). If you do not have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer you can download the software free of charge from the Adobe website. For alternative ways to read PDF documents and further information on website accessibility visit the HM Treasury accessibility page.  

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PDF file of Lorry road-user charge second progress report (220kb)

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