I’m not one to support the Government or be anti-workers, but what has wound me up in the past week is the action of the truckers. In my view the budget’s affect on truckers has been for the best, and is still far to fair to them.
Why am I anti-trucker? It isn’t just because I drive a small car and am hounded my vehicles that are 40 times my weight sitting on the back bumper, it is because that aside for transporting to and from rail depots, there are no need for trucks to be on the road. We have a pretty comprehensive rail network, which links us to the continent, and also goes to every major port, why do we our roads to be blocked by artics. A train can pull 30 or 40 containers, each of which would take one lorry to pull, at higher speed, and cleaner, so why aren’t they used more?
The answer is that the previous governments have let the truckers get their own way for to long, and it isn’t going to continue.
The limit for trucks used to be 36 tonnes, that’s how much all our roads were built to take, so in the early 90s, this was raised to 40 tonnes, when the bridge strengthening program was barely started, it was raised to 42, and the bridges will not be ready to well into next millennium.
One can suggest that Road Tax should be based on how much wear vehicles cause to the road. The formula I’m told is based on the weight cubed, divided by the contact patch. The figures that I read was based on the current car tax, and it showed that instead of the £5000 that trucks pay now, it should be around £100,000.
Diesel is not the green fuel it used to be touted as, especially in trucks the particulate level is dangerously high, it is possibly as dangerous as leaded petrol, as anybody who cycles back to Fallowfield [Manchester student district] on cold winter evenings can verify.
Truckers, you’re a danger on the road, you’re a danger to our environment, stop complaining and do something useful instead. Or if you do want to strike, do it in France, see how they like it for once.
Taxes are lower here for the average person, but diesel taxes are slightly higher, we are not being conned, we are paying the same but in different places.
Why Truckers Are Wankers