This week, the RAC has caused a flurry of comment after Simon Williams, Head of Policy, seemed to support Rachel Reeves’s imminent fuel duty increase in the October Budget. Worse, the alternative he offered was to scrap fuel duty and replace it with per-mile charging. The roadside rescue company seems to have recast itself as a think tank and lobbying organisation, but it is not clear that it represents the interests of the majority of drivers. Williams’s comments follow support for other parts of the Net Zero agenda, including subsidies for EVs. There is a tendency of longstanding British institutions to fall into the trap of making positive noises about ‘green’ measures rather than rock the boat. But what are the problems with pay-per-mile?
Fuel prices have been a contentious issue in British politics since the early days of the Blair Government. In the late 1990s and into the 2000s, fuel protests including rolling road blocks and refinery blockades, largely organised by hauliers, caused petrol and diesel shortages. In months, lorry drivers caused more disruption than Greenpeace could ever dream of. The Government’s poor handling of the protest, which had overwhelming public support, led to the Tories going ahead in the polls for the first time since losing power, and an adjustment to the tax regime mostly focused on competition from foreign logistic firms, who bought cheaper fuel on the continent.
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